TWITTER BLINKS
Giving Musk data ‘firehose’ in bid to save deal
Twitter will reportedly address Elon Musk’s concerns about the number of spam bots in its user base by providing full access to its internal platform data — a reversal that came after the billionaire threatened to drop his effort to buy the social media firm.
Twitter’s board of directors plans to let Musk review its data “firehose,” allowing the Tesla CEO and his legal team to access every tweet posted to the platform each day, The Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Musk could receive access to the pipeline, which includes data on the tweets themselves as well as the accounts and devices from which they originate, by as soon as this week, according to the report.
In an SEC filing earlier this week, the billionaire’s team had alleged that Twitter refused access to critical data about its user base that would “facilitate his evaluation of spam and fake accounts on the company’s platform.”
Musk’s team threatened to back out of his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter. The billionaire has sought proof from Twitter to back up its claim that spam bots account for less than 5% of its overall user base.
Musk’s legal team has argued the data is essential for the billionaire’s understanding of Twitter’s revenue stream and overall business model.
“As Twitter’s prospective owner, Mr. Musk is clearly entitled to the requested data to enable him to prepare for transitioning Twitter’s business to his ownership and to facilitate his transaction financing,” Musk’s attorney said in the SEC filing.
“To do both, he must have a complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitter’s business model — its active user base,” their letter added.
Twitter will provide access to the “firehose” despite purported skepticism from its executives that Musk will glean any new insights into its operations. Roughly two dozen companies already pay to receive access to the data stream.
Musk has yet to personally respond to the report. An effort to reach him was not successful.
Twitter did not return a request for further comment.
The company said it plans to hold a shareholder vote on the sale by early August.