- Elon Musk has previously accused Twitter of being home to more “worlds” than it publicly claims.
- The company is sending a large amount of user data to Musk. He is expected to prove his theory with it.
- Twitter’s board is bracing for Musk’s efforts to force a renegotiation of its $44 billion takeover offer.
Twitter insiders are bracing for what Elon Musk will glean from a trove of user data the company is giving him, expecting he will at least use it to bolster his claims about “worlds” in platform and try to renegotiate the $44 billion acquisition deal it signed in April.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, has not yet received the massive amount of user data from Twitter, but is expected to this week, a person directly familiar with the situation told Insider. This person, along with two other senior company insiders, said Twitter’s board thinks a legal battle with Musk after it reviews the data is possible and that they believe Musk will “undermine it to make accusations of wild” in relation to bots or automated accounts on the Twitter platform.
“He’s going to try to say there’s an insane amount of spam,” the insider said. “But he can’t argue that the data is inaccurate, and it won’t affect the validity of Twitter’s disclosures with the SEC.”
The many terabytes of user data that Twitter will give Musk — dubbed its data “firehose” — are all related to the platform’s 229 million daily active users and their roughly 500 million daily tweets. . Musk will also speak to Twitter employees this week for the first time since signing the acquisition deal, as Insider first reported.
The leak has been in the works since May, despite Musk’s letter last week suggesting he was being denied any information, the person said. A significant back-and-forth over requests for information ended when Musk agreed to receive the data on the same terms as Twitter’s developer API. That the data was set to be released was first reported by the Washington Post, and confirmed by Insider.
“Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to complete the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Staying on the right side of the Securities and Exchange Commission during this acquisition process is a major concern within Twitter, according to the person, as it has run into problems with improper disclosures in the past. Meanwhile, Musk is being investigated by the SEC for his delay in disclosing large purchases of Twitter stock before revealing in April that he had amassed nearly 10% of the company.
Twitter bots have been something of an obsession for Musk. In the first public announcement of his takeover of the platform, he said one of his goals was to “defeat spam bots.” A few weeks later he tweeted that the purchase was “on hold” until he got more information on the number of Twitter bots. Twitter assured its employees that the transaction was going as planned, at the agreed price. The company has claimed that such accounts make up no more than 5% of its active users, but the person in the know admitted that Musk could find a higher number if he wanted to with so much data now available.
“You can find 10% bots depending on what you’re analyzing,” this person said.
Spam accounts typically target high-profile users, such as Musk, who has amassed nearly 100 million Twitter followers, along with popular posts like Musk’s, according to these sources. Even the only verbal responses from him, like “Done!” get tens of thousands of likes. If Musk only analyzes his own account, he can find a higher rate of bot followers and commenters.
While Musk can and likely will use the data he’s being given to shape a plan for Twitter’s business (he’s already said he’s interested in expanding its video capabilities and adding a subscription service), the company’s executives believe he will use the data to make a big allegation of spam accounts in order to renegotiate his bid price, these people said.
Twitter’s board isn’t negotiating, at least not yet. Led by chairman Bret Taylor, Salesforce’s co-CEO, the company believes it is in a strong legal position to force Musk to close the deal at the agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share, the person said. . Musk must show that his new findings have a “material adverse effect” on the deal, which would be a “much higher legal bar” to clear. For now, the board is sitting tight and sticking to its public statements of implementation.
“The board’s ‘winner’ is to make sure they get the full price,” the person said.
The Twitter spokesperson reiterated the company’s enforcement stance when asked if there was any scenario in which Musk could force the company to renegotiate. “We intend to close the transaction and execute the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms,” the spokesman said.
Musk is still seen within Twitter as “genuinely wanting to own the company” and he is in compliance with all terms of the deal. Last week, the deal received the first step of approval from the FTC, known as HSR clearance.
Representatives for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Are you a Twitter, Facebook or Snap employee with knowledge to share? Got a tip? Contact Kali Hays at [email protected], via the secure messaging app Signal at 949-280-0267 or Twitter DM at @hayskali. Stretch using a device that doesn’t work.
