Does Twitter’s board have the will to take on Elon Musk in a PR battle?

With the Tesla boss apparently looking for a way to negotiate down his offer price, the corporate battle depends on whether Twitter’s bosses have the spine to resist him, argues James Moore

Twitter’s shares have been on the slide and are now below the level of Elon Musk’s bid (AP)

Twitter’s shares have consistently traded below the $54.20 (£43) a share, $44bn takeover price agreed with Elon Musk, which tells you that Wall Street has never bought into the Tesla boss buying the social media company. At least, not at that level.

The row over the number of bots on the site fully justifies the scepticism of the street of dreams. Twitter has filed estimates with America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they account for roughly 5 per cent of users, and perhaps fewer.

However, that figure was only an estimate. As such, it was accompanied by a long list of caveats. Independent estimates (which were out there for anyone to see before Musk took the plunge) have put the number at two, three, even four times that.