When I posted this story last week about Elon Musk putting the deal to buy Twitter on hold while he validates that bots only make up 5% of the platform, I said this:
And he might be committed to the acquisition. But this to me seems that he might be looking for an off ramp.
And Wedbush agrees with that assessment. According to this story, here’s what the influential analyst Dan Ives had to say:
“Our view is while Musk is committed to the deal the massive pressure on Tesla’s stock since the deal, a changing stock market/risk environment the last month, and a number of other financing factors has caused Musk to get ‘cold feet’ on the Twitter deal with the bot issue not a new issue and likely more of a scapegoat to push for a lower price,” Wedbush said.
And:
“And Musk knows that, which is why in a changing market and with Tesla losing ~$300 billion of market cap since the deal we view the $44 billion Twitter deal as having less than a 50% [chance] to get done as of today,”
And it will cost Musk $1 billion to walk away. So it will be interesting to see if he cuts that cheque. And what doesn’t help matters is this:
Really Elon? That’s not very mature. But that’s what you get when you deal with this guy. Which is why I believe that it’s only a matter of time before Musk finds any excuse to pull the plug on this deal and walk away. But he’s free to prove me wrong. Though I do not think he will do so.
Musk Claims That 20% Or More Of Twitter Accounts Are Bots…. WTF?
Posted in Commentary with tags Twitter on May 17, 2022 by itnerdYesterday an analyst suggested that Elon Musk may be looking for an off ramp from his attempt to buy Twitter by making the amount of bots on the platform an issue. Today he went further…. By Tweeting this:
Musk doesn’t say where he gets this 20% number from. But he is basically accusing Twitter’s current CEO Parag Agrawal of lying without using the word lying. That’s a very dangerous thing to say as Musk could get called on it if Twitter produces proof that backs up their claims. But the interesting point is that the deal cannot move forward until Twitter’s current CEO pony’s up proof. If he doesn’t, that’s Musk’s off ramp from the deal. Either that or is he trying to get a better deal.
This will be worth watching to see how this turns out.
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