Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
It’s been fascinating to say the least to monitor the latest developments in the saga between Elon Musk and Twitter (TWTR). Following the news that the multi-billionaire Tesla CEO would be acquiring the social media company, he sought to raise funds in order to help finance the deal. Then, he stated that the deal was on hold as he awaited more information on Twitter’s bot accounts and spam. Now, Elon Musk has stated that a renegotiated Twitter (TWTR) deal at a lower price isn’t out of the question.
Elon Musk recently appeared at a conference in Miami run by the creators of the All-In podcast, as reported by Bloomberg. It was here that the topic of the pending Twitter (TWTR) acquisition came up, a recurring theme in his recent public appearances. It was during this talk that he stated that a Twitter deal at a lower price is “not out of the question.” It was just days ago that Musk stated he was seeking more information about the amount of bots and spam accounts on Twitter, thus putting the deal on hold.
Earlier today, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal shared a thread that reported on the company’s internal investigation on spam and bots. He said that the company came to the conclusion that over the past four quarters, bots make up for roughly 5 percent of the accounts on Twitter. However, he said that some of the information used to determine this must remain private. Elon Musk replied with the poop emoji to express his disapproval. Musk poured more doubt on the metric during his appearance at the Miami tech conference, saying that he estimates bots take up roughly 20 percent of Twitter users.
With uncertainty surrounding Twitter’s bot and spam numbers, the pending Musk acquisition continues to be in question. With him not ruling out a renegotiated deal at a lower price, we’re likely far from seeing the end of this back and forth. As always, expect timely updates on Shacknews’ respective topic pages for Twitter and Elon Musk.