Elon Musk's $44-billion Twitter deal in 'serious jeopardy': Report Agencies

Shares of Twitter fell about 4 per cent in early Friday trade following a report from The Washington Post that said billionaire Elon Musk’s deal to buy the company is in “serious jeopardy”. The stock had sharply declined on Thursday, too.

The deal was already in unce­rtain territory, according to Musk, after he demanded more inform­ation on the percentage of spam accounts on the platform. But the Post, citing one unnamed source, said Musk’s team has stopped engaging in some funding discussions for the $44 billion deal. Musk’s team has determined it can’t verify Twitter’s spam account figures and they are now prepared to soon make “a change in direction,” the Post reported. 
 

Musk can’t just pay the $1 billion breakup fee and walk away. Twitter could try to hold Musk to the original terms by claiming his reasons for backing out aren’t related to its core business.

Twitter held a virtual briefing with reporters on Thursday to explain how it determines which of the accounts on its platform are bots or spam accounts. The company said trained workers use internal data and signals to come up with the figure that less than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users each quarter are spam accounts. Musk has complained that the number is much higher, and has threatened to walk away from his agreement to buy the company for $44 billion until he gets confirmation about Twitter’s bot percentage.

Twitter cuts 30% HR jobs

Twitter on Thursday said it laid off 30 per cent of its talent acquisition team, as the company deals with increasing business pressures and a potential takeover from Elon Musk.

The layoffs come after the company in May announced that it would be pausing hiring and looking to cut costs. As a result of the revised business needs, the company is restructuring and reducing its talent acquisition team. The layoffs are expected to affect fewer than 100 people and are limited to the talent acquisition team, the company said. 

A Twitter spokesman confirmed the layoffs but declined further comment. In light of the hiring pause Twitter is reprioritising the talent acquisition team, which includes recruiters, to ensure that it operates efficiently and responsibly, the spokesman said.