Musk says Twitter takeover will not go ahead without clarity on spam accounts

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has briefly paused with the billionaire wanting to know how many fake BOT accounts are on the platform

Musk says his bid to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” pending details about how many spam and fake accounts are on the platform.

Managing Direction and analyst at Wedbush Securities, Dan Ives says he thinks Musk may have gotten cold feet or is trying to push the price down.

He says that bots and fake accounts on Twitter have played a factor.

“Twitter’s claim is that there’s less than five per cent. Musk said it could be as much as 20 per cent… I think this continues to be a bit of a scapegoat, you know, for him to try to get at a deal,” Ives says.

Over the weekend, he tweeted that Twitter’s legal team called to complain that he had violated their non-disclosure agreement. Twitter has declined to comment

Musk set to negotiate a lower Twitter purchase price

Ives says Musk is attempting to lower the price of the original billion dollar deal.

“Now the question is what is he ultimately offering and negotiating? And then what will the Twitter board do?”

Musk’s involvement with Twitter plays a significant role in how the company performs.

“Musk has a billion dollar breakup fee pretty small relative to the deal. If he walks, you could see Twitter stock go down in a few hours.”

“He’s hugely critical to the company,” he says.

However, Ives does believe that Musk ultimately wants to get the deal done.

“I think ultimately, Musk comes back somewhere in the mid 40 billions…and then ultimately, this becomes a back and forth between the Twitter board.”

Alternaviely, Ives suggests that if Twitter do not comprimise, Musk may walk from the Twitter deal all together.

Over the recent weeks Twitter stocks have been hit compared to other stocks.
“I’d it is historic in terms of what I’ve seen going on…I think quality tech is oversold here and markets are already pricing in a modest recession.”

Amanda Gunn contributed to this post.