Tesla Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has given a condition to complete the $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal, months after the billionaire threatened to pull out over disagreement with the firm’s board.
Musk stated that Twitter’s management should submit the method of sampling that discloses how the social media company arrived at the conclusion that its spam account is less than 5% of its over 300 million users.
In July, Musk had informed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that “material breach” and “false and misleading” statements on the part of Twitter had compelled him to terminate the deal.
He said the board had refused to provide necessary information relating to its fake accounts, to help him determine the exact percentage of bots using Twitter. However, the management insisted that it provided data agreed on the contract.
With the case currently in court, due to Twitter’s decision to use lawsuit to compel Musk to complete the deal, the world’s richest man held a Twitter poll on Sunday, to ask his followers if “Less than 5% of Twitter daily users are fake/spam”
Over 822,766 votes was recorded, with 65% voters voting “No”, while 35% voted “Yes”. In response on Sunday, Musk said, “Twitter has spoken.”, while also challenging Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal, to a public debate on the fake accounts.
He stated that the deal could proceed in its original terms if Agrawal can prove that the less than 5% bot accounts are true, “Good summary of the problem.
“If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms.
“However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not. I hereby challenge @paraga to a public debate about the Twitter bot percentage. Let him prove to the public that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users!” Musk tweeted.
– Media Report