Thunderbolt in a case with already many twists and turns. The proposed takeover of Twitter by American billionaire Elon Musk is suspended… temporarily. The news was announced on the social network to the blue bird itself… Reason given: waiting for details on the proportion of fake accounts and spam. They represent less than 5% of total accounts, according to data reported by Twitter. A figure that the boss of Tesla and Space X seeks to validate. ” Always committed to acquiring “, he tweeted in response to the tsunami of reactions caused by his initial post.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
On the stock market, the title plunged, first dropping 20%, before reducing its losses to 9.2% at the opening of Wall Street. At 39.81 dollars, the action is only a few cents higher than on April 1, just before financial investors learned that the whimsical boss now holds 9.2% of the platform’s capital.
Defeat spam bots
Elon Musk has made the fight against fake accounts the cornerstone of the reform he wants for Twitter. Its objective is to defeat spam bots, authenticate all humans and make its algorithms open source “, according to a recent statement. Presenting himself as a champion of free speech, he plans to lift content moderation safeguards and reverse the ban of former US President Donald Trump, whose account was permanently suspended after the attack on the Capitol, in January 2021. ” We wonder if fake accounts are the real reason for this delay tactic given that promoting free speech rather than wealth creation seemed to be his primary motivation for the takeover asks Susannah Streeter, investment and market analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, quoted by the American financial press agency Bloomberg. This suspension appears to some as a strategy to lower the amount of the check.
Towards a renegotiation of the price?
On April 25, the social network’s board of directors indicated that it had reached a definitive agreement for the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, at a price of 54.20 dollars per share in cash, i.e. a total amount of approximately $44 billion. Hindenburg Research, which has made short selling its specialty, indicated at the beginning of the week that it foresees a ” significant risk that Elon Musk’s offer be scaled back. This, while technology stocks are strongly shaken as the US central bank tightens its monetary policy and the latest results from Twitter have been released.
In the first quarter, Twitter only generated $ 1.2 billion in revenue, up 16%, but far from its rival Facebook (Meta Platforms), and, even if their number is growing, the 229 million so-called “monetizable” users are far from being profitable. For comparison, Mark Zuckerberg’s network claims 1.96 billion daily active users.
“Musk never received all the necessary funding”
In addition to doubts about the amount of fake accounts, Elon Musk is still working to secure sources of funding for his megaproject. Talks are underway with investors to raise enough equity, without having to liquidate too many Tesla shares. In a stock market document published Thursday, May 5, the entrepreneur pointed out that he had obtained $7.1 billion in financing, in addition to the $21 billion he had already raised, from Sequoia Capital, the trust of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. , VyCapital and cryptocurrency buying platform Binance.
” Elon Musk never received all the necessary funding, we know this from his constant efforts to obtain financial support, but he also had all the cards in handsaid Neil Campling, head of TMT research at Mirabaud Equity Research, when interviewed by Bloomberg. Twitter’s board has been held hostage and has only itself to blame for this mess. No other buyer will emerge. If Musk decides he’s still interested, he can give his price and it won’t be higher.. »
PC