In the process of acquiring twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called on the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate the number of users of the social network on Tuesday. Musk wrote in an informal poll on twitter on Tuesday: "Twitter claims that more than 95% of its daily active users are real and independent humans. Has anyone had this experience?" Then, he responded to a fan who suggested that the SEC start an investigation and said, "Hello @ secgov, is anyone there?"
Musk agreed to buy twitter for $44 billion last month, but then said the deal was suspended because he was investigating robots, spam and false accounts, and said yesterday that he would not rule out buying the company at a lower price. Twitter responded that it still expected the transaction to be completed at an agreed price of $54.20 per share.
Investors have been selling twitter shares for fear that musk will abandon his acquisition agreement, which will force him to pay a $1 billion breakup fee. Since musk first disclosed its 9% stake in twitter early last month, the company's share price has reversed all gains.
In the first quarter earnings report, twitter admitted that there were many "false or spam accounts" on its platform, but the average number of false or spam accounts was less than 5% of monetized daily living users (mdau). Twitter also admitted to exaggerating the number of 1.4 million to 1.9 million users over the past three years.
