Elon Musk Demands Clarity on Twitter Fake Accounts for Deal to Move Forward

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Elon Musk said his $44 billion purchase of Twitter Inc. can’t move forward until the company is clearer about how many of its accounts are fake, casting fresh doubt on his planned takeover of the social-media company.

Mr. Musk’s latest comments add to questions about whether he is committed to concluding a deal that was struck amid a steep selloff in technology stocks. Last week, he said the deal was “on hold” over concerns about fake accounts on the platform—a problem that has long dogged social media companies.

In a tweet early Tuesday, Mr. Musk said that Twitter’s chief executive had refused to show proof that less than 5% of Twitter’s accounts were fake. “This deal cannot move forward until he does,” he said.

Mr. Musk said his offer was based on Twitter’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission being accurate, and added: “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/musk-demands-clarity-on-fake-twitter-users-for-deal-to-go-ahead/ar-AAXmOvg

He's surprised there are bots?

[ColinC]

1. Goddamn what an idiot

He basically coerced the company into selling it to him and now he's complaining about the product. What a POS

[exboyfil]

4. Well if they are lying in their annual report

Then that is a problem for all investors. I have no sympathy for Musk, but he relied on those reports when he made his offer.

[ColinC]

6. They didn't want to sell it to him in the first place

He ranted and raved and coerced the company and its investors into a deal. That was not an "offer," it was an ambush. Now he's complaining about it because he's an entitled prick with sketchy motives.

[Zeitghost]

23. They had every right and opportuity

to turn him down.

[ColinC]

24. And he had every right and opportunity ask more questions.

Instead, like an entitled prick, he threw a fit until he got what he wanted and ignored the details.

[Zeitghost]

25. Sounds like asking a question

Is exactly what he did and he was not satisfied with Twitters answer.

I've made offers on homes and then withdrew after further inspection. And this sale has a few more zero's involved in the sale price.

That said, I'm not sure what that has to do with your claim that Twitter was somehow manipulated or forced into selling.

[ColinC]

26. Actually it sounds like he didn't do that at all. He simply skipped the fine print

And signed the deal. He waited weeks before even addressing the issue.

My claim is that he is an entitled prick. Based on his whining and complaining about twitter not selling to him until he got what he wanted, as well as ignoring the fine print and rushing into a billion dollar deal without the due diligence.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

29. Don't cover for the weasel Tesla stock dropped past the point analysts say is the "in trouble" price

He’s over leveraged and he knows it.

He says he can do his own analysis to show bots are a larger percentage. Question is, why didn’t he do this prior to the offer?

[ColinC]

30. He was busy tweeting

[herding cats]

5. He's hoping for a reduction in price per share is my guess.

At a glance it appears he knowingly and deliberately made statements to cause people to leave the platform and scare investors. The stock has dropped dramatically since he began his campaign to undermine its worth post his offer.

He hinted yesterday a deal for a lower price wasn't out of the question. He's manipulating the deal in a way which should be illegal I would think, but he's mega rich so I'm sure there's some loophole he plans to use a plebeian such as myself would not have access to.

[Igirl]

10. If twitter is lying about the number of bots...

Then they are lying to the SEC. The only thing he is paying for is users. If the users are wrong then so is the valuation.

[ColinC]

14. It is fundamentally impossible to determine exactly how many bots there are in the way Elon wants.

BTW: Welcome to DU!

[Igirl]

15. I don't think that's true

Any large company goes through due diligence Pryor to sale. If you can validate the numbers, you don’t have a product.

[ColinC]

16. Something he could have confirmed and considered before striking a deal

Instead he coerced the company to sell it to him, skips the fine print, rushes through signing and then complains about the product after. Totally makes sense 😂

[Igirl]

20. Uhhhh....he has not signed the deal.

He is in due diligence where twitter needs to provide the data. Once they prove the data then it moves to signing a deal. 🙄

[BannonsLiver]

21. What do you think of his latest twitter comments, troll?

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=vnNS7s_kWQbhScISwnRroA

[jcgoldie]

27. I would just like to tell you

...because I have thought it many times but never done so, that you have one of my favorite usernames on DU. Cheers.

[ColinC]

28. Reuters: Musk signs deal without asking for more info

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/twitter-committed-elon-musks-44-billion-deal-2022-05-17/

Twitter's account of deal shows Musk signing without asking for more info

[ColinC]

31. Curious, why do you still defend Elon after he announced he is only voting Republican from now on?

[Igirl]

35. I just read that.

That announcement was after my comments…but…
Does that diminish what his contribution is to our environment and his advancement of EV and green energy…no. He has one vote. The same as all of us.
Maybe more consuming to my thought process is that he has changed his vote. He can have anything in the world and he is devoted to green technology….but he’s changed his vote.

[Carlitos Brigante]

36. So the union busting, the swatting of whistleblowers, the online harassment of

people with zero power or resources to fight back, etc. etc., that's all good? Got it!

It's also not as simple as "he only has one vote". He is building a massive propaganda apparatus and pimping republican extreme right bullshit. Because he is only committed to himself and his bottom line. If he gave two shit about the environment, he wouldn't be aligning with climate change deniers and lunatics. FFS, it's not that complicated.

[Igirl]

39. Not so complicated for you because

You have the delusion that the world is black and white. All republicans deny climate change and all democrats love unions. No democrats love guns and all violence is from Republicans. Someone who voted D for 25 years and commits to vote R tomorrow means war on his ideals that have done more for the planet than any any other Democrat or Republican in the last 5 years.

[Carlitos Brigante]

45. Ha! "His ideals!" LMAO! Come on with that corny shit. I especially

love the part where you dismissed everything with "black and white". Bet it sounded super deep in your head too. Seriously, what is it with the weird celebrity worship. I mean, I guess, "me want money and power" counts as an "ideal", in some twisted way.

OH, and he didn't just decide yesterday that the *libs are out oppressing people ". If he truly believes this. He'd have to be an idiot or a sociopath. If that's what you think of your boy. Then I don't know what to tell you. I'm going with option 3. Which is he's doing all this performance art to manipulate the markets. Make more dough, and on and on.

[BannonsLiver]

37. Totally delusional.

"his contribution to our environment"



PT Barnum rule applies here.

[Igirl]

40. I'm lost here

The guy that’s done more for EV vehicles than anyone on the planet? His company has invented the battery technology that makes solar and wind energy viable for cities and residential?

[BannonsLiver]

44. "I'm lost here."

You can say that again.

[ColinC]

38. So you still defend Elon even after knowing that he is a Republican?

[Igirl]

41. His contribution to the environment

Yes. If you want to go through history and erase every contribution from someone that you don’t agree with politically, it’s a narrow world view.

[ColinC]

42. His contributions are far more narrow than that of those

Who actually developed and marketed the tech which you credit. He largely did nothing more than obtain the capital.

[Igirl]

43. It's his company.

It’s his vision. He actually does participate in the process to the extent of actually visualizing the products like solar shingles that the teams design. Would the technology be where it is today without Musk and Tesla? No.

[ColinC]

46. Imagine where Tesla would be without the like-minded people who actually developed the tech?

I find it pathetic that people disregard the accomplishments of actual people in favor of megalomaniacs and billionaires.

[Celerity]

17. He is jaw-jawing the price down, likely closer to 30, 35 billion usd or so

He has the board over a barrel.

Sure they could sue him, but he will tie then up in courts for years as the firm likely further haemorrhages market cap valuation

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Looking more and more like an impulse buy, with some afterthoughts showing up. Not unusual for Musk.

[Captain Zero]

3. Maybe he's mad Trump is using Twitter like a big bot?

Now Trump is disseminating links for his truthsocial on twitter today.
I think Elon found this out a week or two ago because it explains a lot of his squirrel moves.

[OhZone]

7. How many twitter accounts are fully real anyway?

I mean, even beyond spam and bots, regular users use pseudonyms / "pen names."

Even I use an abbreviated version of my name there.

Artists looking for commissions have all kinds of weird names, including pretend company names.

Oh, and I bet there are plenty of catish too.

Oh, and there are the parody accounts like Devin Nunes’ cow!

Including all those, I wouldn't be surprised if only 20% of users were "real" ha

Does he even understand what social media is?

[leftstreet]

13. The same thing happened with Facebook

Back around 2012 ish when Zuckerberg took it public. I remember articles about skewed numbers during the offering because so many users had extra accounts to play games, etc

[tinrobot]

8. Talk about cold feet.

What an idiot.

[Claire Oh Nette]

9. Musk agreed to pat $54 a share

Stock trading @$40 per share.

Side note: permanently banned fro twitter for commenting on Ted Cruz's post.
Only complaints came fro MTG, Cawthron, and Cancun Cruz. I don't wanna hear about Twitter's bias against conservatives!

[haele]

11. He thought he could recoup money charging user fees. Bots have no money...

But since even casual Twitter users have known that anywhere from 15 -20% of Twitter is bots, and another 20% are sock puppets, he should have been able to figure out that only half of Twitter is probably real and can be further monetized.
But since he's an egotistical boy-troll, it probably never occurred to him that a good number of his Twitter followers are not real individuals.

Haele

[SoonerPride]

12. A convenient way for him to back out now that his buyer's remorse has set in.

trump has a sad.

[marmar]

18. After Cheetolini, I swear Elon Musk is the name I would most not like to hear again....

.... until it's on a blue plaque.

[uponit7771]

19. That should've been an upfront stipulation, just damn Musk

[LetMyPeopleVote]

22. Poor Elon lost 12 Billion Dollars today so he's a little cranky...

Link to tweet

[tenderfoot]

32. A 3rd party Twitter audit shows a whopping 70.2% of Elon Musk's twitter followers are fake.

Link to tweet

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: A 3rd party Twitter audit shows a whopping 70.2% of Elon Musk's twitter followers are fake.

Is Elon using bots to manipulate Twitter? 🤔

We performed an audit using a tool created by the Washington state based software company SparkToro, which analyzes Twitter followers of any account, and examines 25+ factors to identify the percentage of "bots" and other "fake" followers that follow the account.

The audit revealed that Elon Musk's twitter account not only had more fake followers than most, but revealed details about a number of his 93,790,063 followers.

41% of Elon Musk's sampled twitter followers had display names that matched spam-correlated signals.

83% of Elon Musk's sampled followers have a suspiciously small number of followers.

78% of Elon Musk's sampled followers follow an unusually small number of accounts.

71% of Elon Musk's sampled followers used a location that does not match any known place name.

For someone who says the purchase of Twitter hinges on the number of bots on the platform, Elon Musk’s unusually high number of fake followers should be of significant interest to the public./

[crickets]

33. Well, now. That's interesting.

Elon, faking his own popularity? Say it ain't so! *insert appropriate Shakespearean quote here*

[struggle4progress]

34. "Now that I got the attention I crave, it's time to move on"