Shares of Twitter fell more than 8 per cent on Monday after Elon Musk said he wants to buy the social media company for less than $44 billion and the “deal cannot move forward” unless the microblogging company provides proof that less than 5 per cent of its users are fake.
Twitter shares slumped to $37.39 at close of trading in New York, extending losses after Mr Musk was reported as saying a lower price for the company is appropriate.
The company's share price has slumped 31 per cent below Mr Musk's initial $54.20 a share offer as part of his proposed acquisition. Twitter had a $28.57bn market value as of the end of trading on Monday.
If Mr Musk decides to abandon the agreement he would have to pay the social media company a $1bn break-up fee.
Mr Musk and Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal have argued over the company's estimates of spam accounts, Reuters reported, citing an attendee at a private conference, where Mr Musk spoke.
The quarrel extended to the social media microblogging site, with Mr Musk openly calling in a post for Twitter to welcome an independent audit to determine what percentage of its accounts are genuine or fake on Tuesday signalling it would take some time for the deal to go through.
The billionaire businessman tweeted on Friday that his acquisition of Twitter is temporarily on hold pending details on the amount of fake accounts on the social media platform. Mr Musk later said he is still "committed" to the acquisition of the social media company.
On Sunday, Mr Musk said he has not yet seen "any analysis" that suggests less than 5 per cent of Twitter accounts are fake.
"There is some chance it might be over 90 per cent of daily active users, which is the metric that matters to advertisers," he said on Twitter.
Twitter shares have declined below the level before Mr Musk revealed his Twitter stake in early April. His comment at the conference, which was closed to the media, is casting doubts about his commitment to proceed with the acquisition at the agreed price.
In a filing last week, Twitter said false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users during the first quarter. The San Francisco-based social media company said it had 229 million users who were served advertising in the first quarter.
The disclosure came after Mr Musk, who is the founder and chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, tweeted that one of his priorities would be to remove spam bots from the platform.
Responding to days of criticism, Mr Agarwal took to Twitter on Monday and reiterated that fake accounts are less than 5 per cent of the total on the company's platform.
“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter,” he said in a tweet.
Twitter locks millions of accounts each week that it suspects could be spam, he said.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
RESULTS - ELITE MEN
1. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 57:03
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 57:09
3. Vincent Luis (FRA) 57:25
4. Leo Bergere (FRA)57:34
5. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 57:40
6. Joao Silva (POR) 57:45
7. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 57:56
8. Adrien Briffod (SUI) 57:57
9. Gustav Iden (NOR) 57:58
10. Richard Murray (RSA) 57:59
More on animal trafficking
Company%20Profile
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
Zayed Sustainability Prize
