Twitter shares lost ground Thursday, July 7 after the publication of an article by the Washington Post according to which the takeover of the social network by Elon Musk would be seriously threatened, because of the concerns of the multi-billionaire about spam.
On Wall Street, the title of the Californian company lost more than 4% during electronic trading after the close of trading, after a session up slightly (1.52%).
The Tesla and SpaceX boss’s team reportedly halted negotiations with one of the investors supposed to contribute to the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion. “Now that Musk’s team has come to the conclusion that Twitter’s numbers on fake accounts were not verifiable, they should take drastic action, said one of the sources” familiar with the matter, details the daily American.
Elon Musk has repeatedly questioned the data transmitted by Twitter on spam, fake accounts and the means put in place to limit their proliferation. In early June, the group’s board of directors agreed to give Elon Musk access to the mountains of data needed to answer his questions on this subject, after the businessman threatened, in an official document, to withdraw his offer.
“60% chance the operation will take place”
The richest man in the world and his team therefore set out to analyze this raw data to determine if the percentage of fake accounts really represents less than 5% of daily active users of Twitter, as claimed by the network.
“At this point, with an offer at $54.20 a share and a stock around $39, the market is clearly skeptical that the deal will go through at the expected price,” Wedbush’s Dan Ives said in a statement. note. “We believe the odds of the deal occurring are currently around 60%, with a renegotiated price in the range of $42 to $45 per share,” he added.
If Elon Musk ever terminates his commitment to buy Twitter, he faces serious legal action. Both parties have pledged to pay severance pay of up to $1 billion in certain circumstances.
