Elon Musk on Saturday challenged the CEO of Twitter to a “public debate” over how the social media firm counts pretend accounts and spam bots.
Musk laid down the gauntlet in a sequence of tweets responding to feedback about his countersuit against San Francisco-based Twitter over his try and withdraw from the $44 billion deal to purchase the corporate.
“If Twitter merely gives their technique of sampling 100 accounts and the way they’re confirmed to be actual, the deal ought to proceed on unique phrases,” wrote Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. “Nonetheless, if it seems that their SEC filings are materially false, then it shouldn’t.”
“I hereby problem @paraga to a public debate in regards to the Twitter bot share,” continued Musk, utilizing the Twitter deal with of the corporate’s CEO Parag Agrawal. “Let him show to the general public that Twitter has <5% pretend or spam every day customers!”
Musk, 51, reached an settlement in June to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share, a hefty premium on the inventory’s value of about $38 on the time. In July, he stated he was walking away from the deal as a result of Twitter had failed or refused to supply info on pretend or spam accounts on the platform.
Twitter sued days later, demanding that the courts power the deal to undergo. It then gained the primary battle in court docket, gaining an expedited trial date for October after the world’s richest man tried to push the case again to subsequent yr.
Musk filed a countersuit in late July, the small print of which have been revealed Thursday. Within the swimsuit, he claimed Twitter held back necessary information and misled his staff about its true variety of customers.
Twitter has referred to as the accusations “implausible and contrary to fact” in its response.
Agrawal has not posted a reply to Musk’s problem.
