The world’s richest person has spent the past several weeks complaining that Twitter is undercounting the amount of automated spam bots on its site and that it won’t give him access to the data he needs to make an independent assessment, which he needs before he’ll finish closing on his acquisition of the company.
Twitter estimates bots are less than 5% of active accounts, a number recorded in many years of SEC filings. Since Musk could access the figure from the very beginning, his sudden fixation on it has seemed like an act, a means to manufacture a pretext for renegotiating his $44 billion offer for Twitter amid a wide drop in tech stock prices.
On Monday, Musk’s lawyer sent Twitter a tersely worded letter saying it had better turn over the data. Or else. Or else? Or else Musk and his attorneys will consider their refusal a breach of the merger agreement and call off the deal, a dubious argument that probably wouldn’t hold up in court—but one they could use to make things unpleasant for Twitter.
On Wednesday, we learned about Twitter’s own Musk-type move. The business is reportedly preparing to give him access to its so-called “firehose” API, a stream of every tweet sent. (Every. Tweet.)
That works out to something like 500 million micro-blog missives per day
. . .To be precise, Twitter has said bots account for less than 5% of its “monetizable daily active users,” a figure of Twitter’s own creation. (More often, an app will report monthly active users, people who log on at least once in the last 30 days.) So it’s uncertain whether even a well-intentioned Musk could use the firehose API to calculate the same number of monetizable daily active users.
Twitter reportedly will give Musk the full “firehose” of user data he demanded
Report: Twitter to give Musk the firehose after he threatened to kill merger.
Twitter now plans to comply with Elon Musk's demand for user data that he says is needed to determine whether the company's spam estimates are accurate, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
"After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter's board plans to comply with Elon Musk's demands for internal data by offering access to its full 'firehose,' the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the state of negotiations," the Post wrote.
Twitter declined comment on the Post report when contacted by Ars today but pointed to its statement from Monday that "Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement."
Whether Twitter has to give all the user data to Musk is under dispute. . .
Musk's offer to buy Twitter waived "business due diligence," but he says Twitter must provide the requested data because of a clause in the merger agreement that says he is entitled to information "for any reasonable business purpose related to the consummation of the transaction."
Musk's letter claims he has a "right to terminate the merger agreement" if Twitter doesn't comply. The letter also said Musk needs a "complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitter's business model—its active user base" in order to obtain financing and prepare for the ownership transition.
"Mr. Musk believes Twitter is transparently refusing to comply with its obligations under the merger agreement, which is causing further suspicion that the company is withholding the requested data due to concern for what Mr. Musk's own analysis of that data will uncover," the letter from Musk's legal team said."
Go get more >> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/06/twitter-reportedly-will-give-musk-the-full-firehose-of-user-data-he-demanded/
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