UPDATED 16:41 EDT / JUNE 08 2022

APPS

Report: Twitter agrees to give Elon Musk access to more internal data

Twitter Inc. plans to give Elon Musk access to more internal data about its platform, the Washington Post reported today. 

Musk is currently in the process of acquiring Twitter for $44 billion. The all-cash transaction, which was announced in April, values the social network at $54.20 per share.

The Post today cited a source familiar with the matter as saying that Twitter’s board plans to give Musk access to its “firehose” data stream. The data stream reportedly includes the more than 500 million tweets that Twitter users post per day, as well as associated metadata. The information could reportedly be provided to Musk as early as this week.

The news comes a few weeks after Musk said that he’s pausing the acquisition of Twitter because of concerns about fake and spam accounts. In its first-quarter earnings report, Twitter stated that fake and spam accounts constitute less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users. Musk has said that he believes that figure to be 20%.

Twitter’s user base estimates were the focus of a letter that an attorney for Musk sent to the company on Monday. The letter stated that Musk is seeking to carry out an evaluation of Twitter’s user base to determine what percentage of accounts are bots. To facilitate this evaluation, Musk has requested that the company share additional internal information. 

The news that Twitter will give Musk access to its firehose data stream is likely related to the request. 

The letter sent to Twitter on Monday claimed that the company has “refused to provide the information that Mr. Musk has repeatedly requested since May 9, 2022 to facilitate his evaluation of spam and fake accounts on the company’s platform.” It also stated that a recent offer made by Twitter to provide additional details about its user base evaluation methodologies was “tantamount to refusing Mr. Musk’s data requests.”

The letter raised the possibility that Musk may scrap the deal.  The Tesla CEO “reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement,” the letter stated. 

When Musk first announced plans to put the deal on hold in May, financial analysts speculated that the move could be an attempt to negotiate a lower acquisition price or scrap the transaction. Musk has personally committed about $33 billion to help finance the deal and a sizable portion of this capital is reportedly tied up in Tesla stock. Tesla’s share price has declined over the past few weeks amid a broader selloff in stocks.

“Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement,” Twitter stated earlier this week in response to the letter sent by Musk’s attorney. “We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”

According to a report published today by Bloomberg, Twitter expects the acquisition to complete in late July or early August.

Photo: NASA/Wikimedia Commons

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