New twist in the saga of the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk: the entrepreneur threatens, in an official document, to withdraw his offer, because the social network “actively resists” his requests for information on the Spam and fake accounts, which the platform refutes.
The multi-billionaire believes that by not providing him with all the data he requests on the subject, Twitter is in breach of his obligations, according to a letter addressed to the legal manager of the social network and published on the website of the American authority of the financial markets ( DRY). “Mr. Musk reserves all resulting rights, including his right not to complete the transaction,” it added.
The platform reacted by saying in a message to Agence France-Presse that it was sharing information with Mr. Musk in accordance with the agreement reached and that it had every intention of completing the transaction, at the end of the transaction. agreed price.
Lower the price
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, who in April filed an offer to buy the social network for 44 billion dollars, has already questioned on several occasions the data transmitted by Twitter on the Spam and fake accounts and measures taken to limit their proliferation. And he has already threatened on his Twitter account to put the agreement “on hold”. But this is the first time he has done so in an official document.
The entrepreneur is looking for means of pressure “in order to lower the price of the offer or completely withdraw if he decides to do so”, suggests Angelo Zino, of the company CFRA. Mr. Musk, he recalls, had waived his right to look deeper into the group’s accounts before the deal was announced. It is increasingly difficult “to imagine a scenario where this would not be settled in court”, notes the analyst. Both parties have pledged to pay severance pay of up to $1 billion in certain circumstances.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Twitter’s stock fell 2.2% to 39.28 dollars shortly after the announcement, a far cry from the price of 54.20 dollars offered by Mr. Musk in April. The small magnitude of the decline “reflects the already deep skepticism of investors about the completion of the operation,” said Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
A “key indicator”
Twitter estimates that the number of fake accounts and Spam on the social network represents less than 5% of its daily active users. But Mr. Musk says the methodology used by the platform is not “adequate” and that he must conduct his “own analysis”. He “repeatedly” asked the social network for more information, the letter claims.
Twitter did transmit a document on the 1er June, but only to offer additional details on its methodology, it adds. However, the entrepreneur believes that he needs more information to prepare for the transition and conclude the financing of the operation. The precise number of fake accounts is “a key indicator” in a strategy to increase revenue through advertising or paid subscriptions, notes Susannah Streeter.
After previous criticisms of Mr. Musk, the boss of the social network, Parag Agrawal, had split mid-May of a long explanation on the measures taken to fight against the Spam and fake accounts. Mr. Agrawal had notably indicated that the figures of Twitter were “based on multiple reproductions of human analyzes of accounts, which are selected in a random way”.
The whimsical entrepreneur had responded to these explanations with an emoji in the shape of a turd. “How can advertisers know what they are really paying? he wrote on Twitter. “This is a fundamental question for the financial health of Twitter. »
This new episode in the Twitter takeover operation comes after the expiry on Friday of the deadline granted to the American competition authorities to launch a thorough examination of the operation. They did not seize the file, which leaves the field open to the progress of the transaction.