Twitter’s board of directors has decided to comply with Elon Musk’s demand to see internal data about the number of fake accounts on the site, the Washington Post reported early Wednesday afternoon.
Musk reached his agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion on April 25; less than three weeks later, he suddenly insisted the deal was “on hold,” citing concerns about the number of fake accounts on the site. Since then Musk and Twitter have traded barbs over the matter, even as Musk was accused of making false statements and engaging in market manipulation by Twitter shareholders.
On Monday, Musk accused Twitter of “actively resisting” his purported efforts to find out how much of its user base is made up of spam-bots – claiming in a letter the Tesla CEO sent to Twitter that this could be grounds for terminating the purchase agreement.
Now, according to the Washington Post, Twitter’s board has offered Musk access to what it calls a “firehose,” internal data made up of “more than 500 million tweets posted each day.” Musk may receive access to this data later this week, the Post said.
Contrary to Musk’s implications, Twitter actually already makes this data available to paying customers, according to the Post, and the company — as well as analysists and other insiders — have accused Musk of using this issue as to force a lower price or break the deal entirely.
On Monday, Twitter spokesperson Scott Bisang said in a statement provided to the Washington Post, “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. 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.”
