Elon Musk eyes 25% slash in Twitter’s $44bn deal

Tesla owner, Elon Musk, has suggested that the value of his Twitter deal would cost less than previously agreed.

Ripples Nigeria had previously reported that Musk and Twitter board had agreed to a deal worth $44 billion for the platform which currently has a market capitalization of $29.26 billion.

However, since both parties had announced that Musk would take 100 percent ownership of the microblogging site, the deal has been stalled by the uncertainty of the actual active number of Twitter’s user base.

The platform has 229 million monetized daily active users (mDAUs), with less than 5 percent of the number previously reported as bot or spam accounts.

But the percentage of the fake accounts are now reportedly more than Twitter management reported and estimated to be as high as 25 percent.

Musk had previously said he agreed to the deal based on the documents Twitter submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which claimed that the spam accounts were about 5 percent.

READ ALSO: Elon Musk gives condition to complete Twitter acquisition deal

With the South African-born billionaire placing the deal on hold until the management prove that the bot accounts are less than 5 percent, he suggested on Saturday that the amount the board demanded to sell the social media company should be reduced based on the actual percentage held by the fake accounts among the total active user base.

He made this known while responding to a post by a Twitter user, Ian Cheong, which stated “if 25 percent of the users are bots then the Twitter acquisition deal should cost 25% less.”

Musk responded with “Absolutely” after disclosing that Twitter has refused to explain how they calculated that 5 percent of daily users are fake/spam!

The billionaire said the Twitter management’s refusal to get back to him on the actual numbers of bots was “very suspicious.”

“I’m worried that Twitter has a disincentive to reduce spam, as it reduces perceived daily users,” he wrote on the social media platform.

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