Twitter deal: Senior Wall Street analyst says Elon Musk could walk away

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says the $54.20 price is likely 'off'; it's a lower price or Elon Musk could walk.
Elon Musk says there are more fake accounts or bots on Twitter than the company is willing to acknowledge.
Musk said last week that the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion was "temporarily on hold.'

Elon Musk is eyeing the bot issue to renegotiate the Twitter deal, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says.

According to the analyst, the Tesla CEO, who agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion in a $54.20 per share deal, could use the bot or spam is “5%” or lower assertion to want to negotiate a lower deal.

Twitter says that fake accounts or spam/bots make up less than 5% of daily active and monetizable accounts. Elon on the other hand believes the percentage is way higher, even in the contested sample of 100 accounts.

Last week, the Tesla chief tweeted that the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending analysis to the effect that indeed fake accounts are not that widespread on the social media platform.

On Monday, Ives said Wall Street was looking at the $54.20 price as one “out the window.”

Shares of Twitter traded lower on Monday and were 7% down in early afternoon trading.