Musk says Twitter deal could go ahead with ‘bot’ information

Elon Musk said Saturday that his planned $44 billion acquisition of Twitter should go ahead if the company can confirm some details about how it measures whether user accounts are “spam bots” or real people.

The billionaire and the CEO of Tesla was trying to hold back From his agreement in April to buy the social media company, which prompted Twitter to sue him last month to complete the acquisition. Musk ViewerHe accused Twitter of misleading his team about the true size of its user base and other issues he said amounted to fraud and breach of contract.

Both sides are heading towards the October trial In Delaware Court.

“If Twitter simply provides a method for sampling 100 accounts and how they are confirmed as real, the deal should continue on the original terms,” ​​Musk wrote on Twitter early Saturday. “However, if their SEC filings are found to be materially false, you should not do so.”

Musk, who has more than 100 million followers on Twitter, went on to challenge Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal in a “public debate on Twitter bot ratio.”

Twitter declined to comment on Saturday. The company has repeatedly disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it estimates that less than 5% of user accounts are fake or spam, with the disclaimer stating that it could be higher. Musk waived his right to further due diligence when he signed the merger agreement in April.

Twitter argued in court that Musk was deliberately trying to spoil the deal and using the bot question as an excuse because market conditions had deteriorated and the takeover was no longer in his interests. In a court filing Thursday, he describes his counterclaims As a fictional story that “contradicts evidence and logic”.

The company’s lawyers wrote, “Musk invents representations that Twitter never made, and then attempts to use, selectively, the sweeping confidential data provided to him by Twitter to elicit a breach of those alleged representations.”

While Musk has tried to keep the focus on bot disclosures, Twitter’s legal team has been searching for information About a group of investors and tech entrepreneurs associated with Musk in an extensive subpoena that could link some of their private communications with the Tesla CEO.