Elon Musk says his Twitter takeover “cannot move forward” until the CEO proves bots are <5% of users, since his offer was based on “SEC filings being accurate”
Good morning! If Parle gave India Thums Up, Goldspot … Tweets: Elon Musk / @elonmusk : Twitter claims that >95% of daily active users are real, unique humans. Does anyone have that experience? Elon Musk / @elonmusk : @EvaFoxU Hello @SECGov, anyone home? Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : Since it seems there's a decent chance Elon pulls out of the Twitter deal, who else would be in line to buy up the pieces (at a much bigger discount)? My white knight guess is Microsoft. Who else? @evafoxu : @elonmusk The SEC should investigate whether the Twitter claims are true. If it turns out that Twitter lied in the official filing, then serious consequences and complete distrust of investors can await it. Stephanie Ruhle / @sruhle : Do I have this timeline right? - huge influencer buye up stock in a company he often mocks - announces plans to buy company - bid accepted - starts publicly heckling employees & biz practices - stock drops (w/mkt) - pulls out over questions that due dilligence would have covered https://twitter.com/... Ben Meiselas / @meiselasb : Stop whining. You claim you wanted to acquire Twitter because you wanted to help remove bots and you waived due diligence. Sick of this. Post videos of rockets or cars or be quiet. https://twitter.com/... @anandwrites : You of all people should know that Twitter users can be real people who behave like bots. https://twitter.com/... Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast : He's trying to get out of paying the billion dollar kill fee. https://twitter.com/... Anne Lamott / @annelamott : Elmo Moose, pay the billion. As I'm sure you remember, I was the speaker directly before you at TED 2017-remember? I spoke on 12 things I was sure of? Is it coming back? But the 13th wd've been, If you can throw $ at a problem and make it go away, it's not an interesting problem. https://twitter.com/... Josh Marshall / @joshtpm : who does this freak thinks he's kidding? is there anyone who takes this “oh my girlfriend is from Canada, you wouldn't know her” shtick seriously? https://twitter.com/... Luke Miani / @lukemiani : Initiates a 44 billion dollar deal and just takes one stat at face value? Didn't deduce or do *any* research (on say, Google) that would easily provide this information? Sure. Believable https://twitter.com/... Shibetoshi Nakamoto / @billym2k : @elonmusk i had to purchase third party muting and blocking software to even make my twitter experience usable with all the stupid ass shill bots and fake users so i would say, a resounding “absolutely not” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / @repaoc : White supremacy has cost countless lives from El Paso to Mother Emanuel and now Buffalo. Our hearts break for the victims. And we demand accountability for those in Congress and in social media that perpetrate this deadly ideology. https://twitter.com/... Liz Peek / @lizpeek : If @twitter isn't being honest w shareholders or @elonmusk re bot #s musk has every right to pull out! https://twitter.com/... Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn : Would just add the part where he specifically proposed the deal *because of the power of bots* and also that he agreed to do no due diligence before going ahead https://twitter.com/... Ted Lieu / @tedlieu : This would require talking to the Kremlin. #tuesdayvibe https://twitter.com/... Michael Sheetz / @thesheetztweetz : Elon Musk, yesterday: “I've not seen any evidence of aliens and I'll be the first to tweet about it or whatever if I see some.” “If we found aliens ... probably SpaceX would get a ton more revenue.” https://www.youtube.com/... #UFOHearings https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @janewells : Am I the only one who thinks he's trying to come up with a reason to break up with his corporate fiancée? #Elon Musk said his $44 billion deal for Twitter can't move forward until the company is clearer about how many of its accounts are fake https://www.wsj.com/... Richard Signorelli / @richsignorelli : Twitter is committed to completing deal & will sue this moron to compel specific performance/payment of penalty. Musk said his $44 billion deal for Twitter can't move forward until the company is clearer about how many of its accounts are fake https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ Nile Gardiner / @nilegardiner : Striking how many of the Twitter troll accounts in the UK are far left, pro-EU. Anti-Brexit, pro-Remain accounts on Twitter are overwhelmingly anonymous for some reason. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ Ernesto Falcon / @efffalcon : Damn the honeymoon with conservatives wasn't even going to make it to day 1. He's bailing on day zero. https://twitter.com/... @carnage4life : Elon's legal team on their way to court to explain why a signed agreement to buy Twitter is off because Elon, who said he was buying Twitter to get rid of bots, didn't read the stats about how many bots are on Twitter. https://twitter.com/... @tonychurnside : “Waiter there's a fly in my soup” https://twitter.com/... Karl Bode / @karlbode : oh no i overpaid for a business i don't understand without doing due diligence right before my finances took a hit time to fling out a flimsy excuse the press will take seriously so i can either force a cheaper deal or back away entirely while getting my gargantuan ego stroked https://twitter.com/... Gaurav Sabnis / @gauravsabnis : As we say in Hindi, are you a human being or are you pyjamas? 😂😂 Of all the made up invalid reasons to back out of a purchase he never intended to follow through on anyway, this is the most Casablanca like, @elonmusk https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Brianna Wu / @briannawu : Something I think about: Musk has billions of dollars and can do anything he wants. And yet he has a howling, insatiable need for validation on Twitter just like the rest of us. There's no point, no number of followers or success in the public sphere where you win this game. Casey Newton / @caseynewton : 🤡🤡🤡 https://twitter.com/... Matt Huang / @matthuang : Genuine question: is the Twitter bot problem so easy? 1) Isn't it an adversarial problem? AIs to detect bots vs AIs to create bots? 2) What % false positive rate is acceptable? (Putting aside exact image/name scam bots that *should* be easy to detect) Christina Warren / @film_girl : What a baby. Take the L and admit your trolling backfired and now you're stuck overpaying for an asset that you've devalued and destabilized with your own behavior. https://www.wsj.com/... Cian Maher / @cianmaher0 : All Elon Musk has done since he said he was buying Twitter is look for reasons to not buy Twitter https://twitter.com/... Charles Johnson / @green_footballs : Seems like something you'd investigate BEFORE committing to a $44 billion deal, if you were serious. https://twitter.com/...
BloombergEdwin Chan
Context & Ripple Effects
Musk had already put the acquisition on hold for a review of spam and fake accounts while saying he remained committed; the earlier pause was followed by sharp declines in Twitter’s stock price. The new demand makes Twitter’s reported user-quality metric the explicit condition for proceeding.
Twitter and its CEO are pressed to substantiate the sub-5% fake-account figure that Musk says underpinned his offer, while the agreed takeover loses forward momentum.
Musk gains a public basis to challenge the transaction’s assumptions; Twitter shareholders face renewed uncertainty after the earlier deal pause over spam-account review.
Second-order effects
A lower-price outcome becomes a more concrete negotiating reference point after Musk said such a revision was possible, putting Twitter’s reported audience quality at the center of valuation discussions.
Advertisers and other buyers of platform reach have a sharper reason to scrutinize how Twitter characterizes authentic daily users, because the metric is now contested in a high-profile transaction.
Third-order effects
If acquisitions increasingly turn on whether platforms can independently validate reported audience quality, disclosure methodology becomes a transaction-risk issue rather than only an advertising measurement question.
The episode points toward greater leverage for buyers who can challenge platform metrics during volatile markets, especially where the data needed for verification is controlled by the target company.
The trend: Platform dealmaking is putting greater weight on the verifiability of engagement and audience metrics, not just their reported scale.
@Teslarati 20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher. My offer was based on Twitter's SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter's CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.
Since it seems there's a decent chance Elon pulls out of the Twitter deal, who else would be in line to buy up the pieces (at a much bigger discount)? My white knight guess is Microsoft. Who else?
@elonmusk The SEC should investigate whether the Twitter claims are true. If it turns out that Twitter lied in the official filing, then serious consequences and complete distrust of investors can await it.
Do I have this timeline right? - huge influencer buye up stock in a company he often mocks - announces plans to buy company - bid accepted - starts publicly heckling employees & biz practices - stock drops (w/mkt) - pulls out over questions that due dilligence would have covered …
Would just add the part where he specifically proposed the deal *because of the power of bots* and also that he agreed to do no due diligence before going ahead https://twitter.com/...
Stop whining. You claim you wanted to acquire Twitter because you wanted to help remove bots and you waived due diligence. Sick of this. Post videos of rockets or cars or be quiet. https://twitter.com/...
Elmo Moose, pay the billion. As I'm sure you remember, I was the speaker directly before you at TED 2017-remember? I spoke on 12 things I was sure of? Is it coming back? But the 13th wd've been, If you can throw $ at a problem and make it go away, it's not an interesting problem.…
who does this freak thinks he's kidding? is there anyone who takes this “oh my girlfriend is from Canada, you wouldn't know her” shtick seriously? https://twitter.com/...
Initiates a 44 billion dollar deal and just takes one stat at face value? Didn't deduce or do *any* research (on say, Google) that would easily provide this information? Sure. Believable https://twitter.com/...
@elonmusk i had to purchase third party muting and blocking software to even make my twitter experience usable with all the stupid ass shill bots and fake users so i would say, a resounding “absolutely not”
Elon Musk, yesterday: “I've not seen any evidence of aliens and I'll be the first to tweet about it or whatever if I see some.” “If we found aliens ... probably SpaceX would get a ton more revenue.” https://www.youtube.com/... #UFOHearings https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.…
Am I the only one who thinks he's trying to come up with a reason to break up with his corporate fiancée? #Elon Musk said his $44 billion deal for Twitter can't move forward until the company is clearer about how many of its accounts are fake https://www.wsj.com/...
Twitter is committed to completing deal & will sue this moron to compel specific performance/payment of penalty. Musk said his $44 billion deal for Twitter can't move forward until the company is clearer about how many of its accounts are fake https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
Striking how many of the Twitter troll accounts in the UK are far left, pro-EU. Anti-Brexit, pro-Remain accounts on Twitter are overwhelmingly anonymous for some reason. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
Elon's legal team on their way to court to explain why a signed agreement to buy Twitter is off because Elon, who said he was buying Twitter to get rid of bots, didn't read the stats about how many bots are on Twitter. https://twitter.com/...
oh no i overpaid for a business i don't understand without doing due diligence right before my finances took a hit time to fling out a flimsy excuse the press will take seriously so i can either force a cheaper deal or back away entirely while getting my gargantuan ego stroked ht…
What a baby. Take the L and admit your trolling backfired and now you're stuck overpaying for an asset that you've devalued and destabilized with your own behavior. https://www.wsj.com/...
As we say in Hindi, are you a human being or are you pyjamas? 😂😂 Of all the made up invalid reasons to back out of a purchase he never intended to follow through on anyway, this is the most Casablanca like, @elonmusk https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Something I think about: Musk has billions of dollars and can do anything he wants. And yet he has a howling, insatiable need for validation on Twitter just like the rest of us. There's no point, no number of followers or success in the public sphere where you win this game.
Genuine question: is the Twitter bot problem so easy? 1) Isn't it an adversarial problem? AIs to detect bots vs AIs to create bots? 2) What % false positive rate is acceptable? (Putting aside exact image/name scam bots that *should* be easy to detect)
This guy is never ever going to jail for stock manipulation or securities fraud Ever And he knows it And when that's the case, oh man what a superpower He probably doesn't even care about the money it's just a game and he won again https://twitter.com/...
Parag unceremoniously fired his heads of consumer product and monetization. Jack threw the company he founded and ran under the bus. All this just for Elon to get the worst case of buyer's remorse the world's ever seen. Truly, don't count your chickens before they've hatched. htt…
Still trying to understand why he wants the hassle honestly. I mean... how many people like Zuckerberg? No one that runs a social media company is likely to be loved, no matter what. 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
“Obviously Twitter's actual board of directors would never do this, because they are constantly forgetting that they run Twitter; they don't use it themselves, so they can't imagine that the product might be important to people like Musk.” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.…
There's no question that Musk is simply looking for a way out, the whole thing is looking like an entire waste of everyone's time. https://twitter.com/...
maybe, given his long history of chatting utter gash, we should stop reporting every new thing he says and wait for actual concrete things to happen before cracking out the breaking news gif?? https://twitter.com/...
Seeing as he doesn't seem to believe Twitter's methodology, and Twitter says the work can't be duplicated externally, this looks like a potential (expensive) opportunity for Musk to find a way out of a deal he can't finance while making Twitter look like the bad guys. https://twi…
Elon needs to walk away from $TWTR and let it fall back to $30/share. That's the best outcome for $TSLA SHs. End of distraction. https://twitter.com/...