Fakoyejo Olalekan
World’s richest man, Elon Musk, has threatened to stop his planned acquisition of social media company, Twitter, in a new filing to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the capital market’s authority.
Musk said he might walk away from the deal due to what he called a breach, accusing Twitter management of hiding important materials that his acquisition offer is dependent on, following disagreement over total active users on the platform.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe billionaire had suspended the completion of the acquisition, requesting Twitter provide information that proves bot or fake accounts on the microblogging site is five percent and below, despite the Chief Executive Officer, Parag Agrawal, claiming in series of tweets that the number is below.
Musk believes that the bots accounts for more than five percent, and could be as much as 25%, against the claim of Agrawal. He had stated that he offered to buy Twitter based on the data that bots accounts are below five percent.
He hinted that should the number be more, the percentage will be deducted from his offering price, which is about $44 billion. This means the deal could be worth less than initially agreed if the acquisition is to be completed.
The Tesla chief executive said Twitter’s refusal to provide him access to the active number data is a breach on his right to information, he told the capital market, as he doesn’t believe in the methodologies
“Twitter’s effort to characterize it otherwise is merely an attempt to obfuscate and confuse the issue. Mr. Musk has made it clear that he does not believe the company’s lax testing methodologies are adequate so he must conduct his own analysis. The data he has requested is necessary to do so.”
