Elon Musk says his planned $US44 billion ($63.7 billion) takeover of Twitter should move forward if the company can confirm some details about how it measures whether user accounts are “spam bots” or real people.
Key points:
Twitter estimates less than 5 per cent of its user accounts are fake or spam
Mr Musk said his deal to buy Twitter would move ahead on its original terms if the company provided its method of sampling
Both sides are headed to trial in October
The billionaire and Tesla CEO have been trying to back out of his April agreement to buy the social media company, leading Twitter to sue him last month to complete the acquisition.
Mr Musk countersued, accusing Twitter of misleading his team about the true size of its user base and other problems he said amounted to fraud and breach of contract.
Both sides are headed toward an October trial in a Delaware court.
“If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms,” Mr Musk tweeted.
“However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”
Mr Musk, who has more than 100 million Twitter followers, went on to challenge Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a “public debate about the Twitter bot percentage.”
Twitter declined to comment.
The company has repeatedly disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission an estimate that fewer than 5 per cent of user accounts are fake or spam, with a disclaimer that it could be higher.
Mr Musk waived his right to further due diligence when he signed the April merger agreement.
It’s a story that’s got the makings of a best-seller — a billion-dollar deal, a court battle, and an endorsement from the King of Horror.
Penguin Random House, a publishing titan, is hoping to buy its rival Simon & Schuster in a mega-deal that would reshape the publishing industry.
But the Biden administration has sought to intervene through the US courts, with the Department of Justice (DOJ) suing to block the merger from happening.
Let’s get you up to speed on the court case that’s gripping the publishing industry.
What’s the story?
In 2020, German media giant Bertelsmann announced its plan for its Penguin Random House division to buy fellow publishing giant Simon & Schuster for $US2.17 billion from TV and film company ViacomCBS.
The merger would reduce the so-called Big Five of publishing — which also includes HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan — to four.
The announcement was not well received and drew intense scrutiny from government regulators.
The US Justice Department argues that the merger would hurt authors and, ultimately, readers as well.
Penguin Random House argues the combined publishers could turn out books more efficiently.(AP: Jenny Kane)
It says the deal would thwart competition and give Penguin Random House gigantic influence over which books are published in the US and beyond, not just how many authors are paid, giving consumers fewer books to choose from.
The new company, if approved, would be by far the biggest book-publishing entity in US history.
