Elon Musk pulling out of Twitter deal could cause 'nightmare scenario,' says expert

A tech industry expert has warned that Elon Musk pulling out of the $44billion deal to buy Twitter could cause a ’nightmare scenario’ for the company.

Shares in the platform plunged 11 per cent after the Tesla CEO announced on Friday that he would not buy the social media giant.

Musk also accused the company of misleading him about the nature of the platform, repeatedly saying that Twitter executives have hidden the full extent of bots and automated accounts.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives believes Musk’s decision and the upcoming legal proceedings could put the company in a disastrous long-term situation.

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“For Twitter, this fiasco is a nightmare scenario and will result in an Everest-like uphill climb for Parag & Co. to navigate the myriad of challenges ahead around employee turnover/morale, advertising headwinds, investor credibility around the fake account/bot issues, and host of other issues abound,” he said [via New York Post].

“That said, this is going to be a long and ugly court battle (Twitter has already hired counsel) ahead in which the fake account/bot issue will be scrutinized for all to see and casts a dark cloud over Twitter’s head in the near term,” Ives said.

“The legal issues could last into 2023 and in the meantime Twitter is a public company that needs to navigate day-to-day operations with many challenges ahead with its stakeholders,” he added.

It comes after the company said that bots account for less than 5 per cent of its active users – a number that Musk said he would not believe until he had been able to check himself.

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