Elon Musk deepened uncertainty over his $44 billion bid to take over Twitter, by hinting that the bid should be reduced by a percentage. fake accounts On the platform, he described Twitter’s lack of explanation about its estimates as “extremely suspicious”.
Last Saturday, Musk agreed with conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheung who tweeted, “If 25% of users are bots, the Twitter acquisition should cost 25% less.”
Musk replied, “Sure.”
Musk had suspended the purchase of Twitter for $ 54.20 per share, until the platform’s management proved that only 5% of users were fake, a percentage that the company’s management argued.
Speaking on Monday’s “All-In” podcast, Musk said the number is likely “four or five times” higher.
A 25% reduction would bring the value of the bid down to $33 billion, an amount much closer to Twitter’s current market value of just under $30 billion. Twitter shares closed Friday in New York at $38.29, according to Business Insider.
Musk earlier questioned Twitter’s inability to provide an explanation for its estimate of the proportion of fake accounts at less than 5%, saying he had no incentive to deal with those accounts.
“I am concerned that Twitter has a disincentive to reduce fake accounts, because that reduces perceived daily users,” Musk said.
In response to a user who asked if Twitter was in touch with him, Musk replied: “No, they still refuse to explain how they estimate that 5% of daily users are fake! It’s very fishy.”
No, they still refuse to explain how they calculate that 5% of daily users are fake/spam! Very suspicious.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2022
The proposal represented the latest escalation of rhetoric in a turbulent acquisition process, and prompted Musk to remind investors of his priorities for his two other companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk previously suggested sampling 100 users to determine the number of fake accounts on the platform, and responded to CEO Parag Agrawal’s explanation for why that wouldn’t be possible, with an inappropriate emoji.