Billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is in deal to acquire Twitter Inc., may seek a lower price for the social media platform as he estimates that there could be at least four times more fake accounts than what the company informed, Reuters reported.
It was in late April that Twitter agreed to accept Musk's about $44 billion takeover offer and to become a privately held company. Musk then agreed to pay Twitter shareholders $54.20 in cash for each Twitter share.
However, last week, he put the acquisition of Twitter on hold as he awaits further information about spam and fake accounts on the microblogging site. Musk tweeted then that the deal is pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 percent of users.
Twitter has openly admitted for years that about 5 percent of the accounts are of fake users. But, Musk said he suspects they make up at least 20 percent of users.
"The more questions I ask, the more my concerns grow.. They claim that they've got this complex methodology that only they can understand ... It can't be some deep mystery that is, like, more complex than the human soul or something like that," he said at a conference.
At present, Twitter does not require users to register with their real identities and permits automated and pseudonymous profiles.
Musk, with around 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, is the largest shareholder of the micro-blogging platform.
Meanwhile, Twitter now said it has filed its preliminary proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Musk for $54.20 per share in cash. The transaction, subject to conditions, is expected to close in 2022.
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