A new report has suggested that Elon Musk's plan to buy Twitter is in "serious jeopardy", with the billionaire believing that the social network's spam account figures are not verifiable.
According to The Washington Post, Musk and his team have doubts over the figures Twitter has provided in regards to how many spam accounts are registered on the service. The publication's sources say Musk's belief that these figures are not verifiable means that he does not have enough information to evaluate Twitter's prospects as a business venture. It is expected that Musk will take "potentially drastic action" in response.
Starting in May, Musk threatened to walk away from his Twitter buyout if the platform didn't meet his demands over spam accounts. He initially said that he would not purchase the social network unless it could confirm less than 5% of accounts were fake or spam bots, and while Twitter itself claims that the number does indeed hover around 5%, Musk appears to be unsatisfied with their data.
While Musk may well take "drastic action" and attempt to step away from the deal, it will not be a clean break. As The Washington Post reports, Musk has agreed to complete the buyout unless something "major" happens to Twitter's business, and it is believed that this fake accounts issue would not legally qualify as such. Experts also believe that Twitter will fight for the deal to go through; while the company initially tried to fend off Musk's takeover, it is expected that Twitter will weaken should the deal collapse, and so it's in Twitter's interests to see the deal through.
If Musk should somehow be able to terminate the deal based on the fake accounts, he will still be expected to pay a $1 billion "breakup fee".
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO began his buyout with an offer of $44 billion back in April, which was accepted soon after by Twitter. Since then, the deal has seen a variety of ups and downs, including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey claiming Musk is "the singular solution I trust" and Musk sending Twitter's current CEO a poop emoji.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.
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