According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk aims to complete the acquisition of Twitter for $54.20 per share, which would put the social media juggernaut’s value at almost $44 billion. This new offer has been formalized by Musk in a letter to the Twitter board. When this news first emerged a short while ago, Twitter shares were suspended. The stock has increased by more than 18% recently. Of course, later in October Elon Musk and Twitter were going to square off in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Though it’s still possible that both sides will drop their claims against one another in light of today’s event. Elon Musk’s position about the number of Twitter bots encountered two significant obstacles, as we had mentioned in a piece earlier today. First, Twitter’s legal team recently revealed that the two independent experts Musk hired to estimate the number of bots or phony accounts that populate the social media site refuted Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s assertions that up to 90% of Twitter engagements might have been generated by bots. In particular, Cyabra and CounterAction have now determined that the percentage of phony accounts on Twitter in early July was 11 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively. To legally withdraw from the takeover agreement, Elon Musk had to demonstrate that the whistleblower complaint submitted by Pieter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s security manager until January 2022, when he was sacked for allegedly exposing the issue of chronic mismanagement at Twitter, including security failings, technical inadequacies, and noncompliance with an already-signed privacy agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Regarding the spam accounts, Musk was also required by Twitter to provide a false statement however significant progress in the situation wasn’t visible. Musk has mostly relied on his claim that Twitter misrepresented how it calculates the number of “spam bot” accounts that are unusable to advertisers in order to win the case and walk away from the agreement. However, the majority of legal experts thought he would have a difficult time persuading the court’s chief judge, Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick for the termination of the Twitter deal. Bloomberg’s story suggests that the tide may turn and the Twitter transaction may be completed however no official statement has been released from either of the side.
