Will repurchase? Will not repurchase? For weeks, the future of Twitter has been in the hands of a very undecided Elon Musk. The latest news, the founder of Tesla would be about to drop the case.
We thought the case was closed, but it is not. Elon Musk, who practically signed the Twitter takeover deed a few weeks ago, is still in the middle of dithering, according to the washington post. The American daily, who was able to speak to several sources at Twitter, affirms that the agreement is again “in dangerdue to the controversy over fake accounts.
Elon Musk braced on fake accounts
Since his takeover proposal formulated in early April, the South African businessman has continued to question the numbers communicated by Twitter on the proportion of fake accounts and bots present on the social network. According to Twitter, these profiles represent “less than 5% of daily active users“, Musk estimating for his part that their proportion is much higher. Correctly estimating the number of fake accounts is particularly important since it gives an idea of the number of users who are really “monetizable”, that is to say potentially exposed to advertisements.
Musk, who had used the excuse of fake accounts to suspend his takeover plan for the first time, has since had access to raw data from Twitter to conduct his own investigation. But this privileged access to the figures of the blue bird network did not convince Elon Musk. According to washington postthe contractor’s teams “feel they don’t have enough information to properly assess the value of Twitter as a business“, and question the number of robots present on the platform.
Musk hesitates, Twitter panics
Result, it is more and more likely that Elon Musk will make a decision “drastic” in the days or weeks to come, say some sources. The specter of an outright cancellation of the takeover therefore hovers seriously over the case. For the richest man in the world, the data concerning the bots (if they actually turn out to be erroneous) would represent a “serious adverse misstatement“, which would allow it to reverse its legal obligations to buy back.
Because because of the progress of the negotiations, it is not so easy, for Musk or for Twitter, to return to the status quo before the takeover. If Elon Musk withdraws without real and serious reason, he will still have to pay $ 1 billion to Twitter for breach of contract. Conversely, Twitter could owe Musk money if the company is found to have indeed faked its numbers. In any case, the future of the social network looks complicated. Since the start of the controversy, the value of the Twitter action has continued to be shaken up. A release by Elon Musk could further aggravate the situation.
It therefore seems likely that these discussions will end up in court. Whatever the outcome of the case, Twitter’s image with potential investors should be permanently tarnished.