The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter is in jeopardy. The newspaper cites sources with knowledge of the deal, but who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the situation and the size of the deal. Musk has offered $44 billion for Twitter.
According to the newspaper's information, Musk's negotiating team has stopped talks with those who would back his entry into Twitter. Musk has decided to put negotiations with other investors on hold because he does not know for sure the number of fake accounts on the social network.
Spam, share prices and Tesla
Twitter has offered Musk access to the "firehose": that is, to the entire torrent of tweets so that he can study the volume of spam generated on the social network. And the company has estimated the presence of spam on the network at 5%. Musk did not consider the company's explanations sufficient. The volume of spam is very relevant to Musk's business strategy for Twitter. That strategy depends on what the number of real Twitter users is.
Spam volume is the entrepreneur's main concern in the deal, but it is not the only one. For one thing, he's concerned that Twitter's stock price has fallen after peaking when he announced his offering. Specifically, since Musk offered $44 million in April, the share price has fallen 24%.
On the other hand, Musk has two other large companies, such as Tesla and Space X. The resources he devotes to Twitter cannot be lent to these companies, or to other start-ups he also has underway.
Expectation in Twitter
For its part, the New York Times has also reported the matter, although in this case from the company's side. The New York newspaper, which has felt the atmosphere inside Twitter, shows that the company does not see that the agreement could be in danger.
Specifically, and mentioning a news agency of the New York Times itself, the newspaper says: "The claims in the (WaPo) article, which have not been confirmed by DealBook, have taken Twitter and its advertisers by surprise, given that they do not consider the deal to be in greater danger today than at any time in recent months".
