The move aims to end a standoff with the billionaire, who has threatened to pull out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter unless the company provides access to data he says is necessary to estimate the number of fake users on the platform.
The information could be released as soon as this week, the person said. Currently, about two dozen companies pay for access to trove, which includes not only a real-time record of tweets, but also the devices from which they tweet, as well as information about the accounts that tweet.
Musk’s legal team claims the data flow is essential to understanding the amount of spam and bot activity on its platform, a figure that could affect the company’s ad revenue, according to a letter sent on Twitter on Monday.
Musk has said the deal is on hold until he can provide the information, adding to speculation that he is trying to back out or renegotiate his purchase for a lower price. When he signed his initial deal to buy the company in April, he gave up the right to look deep into Twitter’s finances and inner workings. The purchase agreement requires Musk to go ahead with the deal unless he can show the company misled him or a major event changed its value.
Twitter executives are skeptical of Musk’s ability to use the data to find previously undiscovered information: The data stream has been available for years to companies that pay Twitter for the ability to analyze it for patterns and insights in everyday conversation. They, along with some Silicon Valley analysts and insiders, say Musk is using the data demands as a pretext to back out of the deal or negotiate a lower price.
Spam activity is important to his team because if Twitter underestimates spam on its service, the company’s estimates of how many users might be served ads would be lower, affecting revenue.
In Monday’s letter to Twitter’s general counsel, Vijaya Gadde, Musk’s lawyers accused Twitter of refusing to provide information about spam and fake accounts that the billionaire, who is the world’s richest man, has requested. since May 9.
Musk “must have a full and accurate understanding of the core of Twitter’s business model — its active user base,” said lawyers from the firm Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. “Twitter’s latest offer to simply provide additional details about the company’s own testing methodologies, whether through written materials or verbal explanations, amounts to a denial of Mr. Musk’s data requests.”
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twitter spokesman Scott Bisang referred The Washington Post to the company’s statement on Monday. “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,” the statement said. “We believe this deal is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and execute the merger agreement at the agreed upon price and terms.”
Twitter’s challenges with bots and fake accounts have been around for almost as long as the 16-year-old platform. For years, the company has reported that bots and spam accounts represent less than 5 percent of users on the service, a number the company derived from extensive audits. (This figure does not include automated accounts allowed by the service.)
But some outside researchers, based on their own studies, suggest the percentage is actually much higher—perhaps double or triple the 5 percent figure.
Musk began complaining about the bot issue shortly after agreeing to buy and take the company private for $44 billion in April. He has used his massive Twitter megaphone to threaten to put the deal “on hold” and insist the deal cannot “move forward” until Twitter provides further evidence of its spam detection methods.
Musk has pledged more than $33 billion of his fortune, which mostly comes from his ownership of Tesla, to complete the deal. But as the stock market has been rocked by a global selloff in tech stocks, Tesla’s share values have fallen and some analysts have speculated that Musk has buyer’s remorse.
Faiz Siddiqui contributed to this report.
