Musk: There are still a number of unresolved issues regarding the Twitter acquisition

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says there are still a number of “unresolved issues” surrounding the Twitter takeover. The billionaire said at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha that he is still waiting for a solution regarding the number of so-called robots on the social media platform. Musk claims that the problem with these bot accounts on Twitter is much greater than the company itself indicates, and therefore has paused the planned acquisition.

Musk disputed Twitter’s claim early last month that less than 5 percent of daily users are from spam accounts. The number of active users is important to Twitter’s profitability because spam accounts don’t respond to ads. Twitter responded by giving Musk access to all information about the number of bots operating on the network.

Musk, who wants to acquire Twitter for $44 billion (about 42 billion euros), said it was also doubtful whether debt financing for the deal would come and whether Twitter shareholders would vote in favor of the takeover. The world’s richest man has also indicated that he does not necessarily intend to become the new CEO of Twitter.

Musk also expects Tesla’s interests in China to not be affected by the Twitter acquisition in the future. The social media platform is not working in China. “China is trying not to interfere with free speech in the United States, as far as I know,” Musk said. Tesla has a large factory in Shanghai.

The Tesla chief also said he plans to reduce the electric car maker’s overall workforce over the next three months. At the beginning of this month, Musk was widely surprised when he stated that he wanted to cut 10 percent of Tesla’s employees. He later modified his statement by saying that he assumed that Tesla’s total workforce would continue to increase. The automaker has nearly 100,000 employees worldwide.

“We’ve had very fast growth in terms of fixed compensation for employees. In a year from now, I think our headcount will be higher, both in terms of fixed salary and hourly employees, but right now, the 3 percent reduction in headcount to 3.5 will be in cent,” Musk said.