If you're selling me a house and saying it's one size but in practice it's another you bet I'm taking it up with you! I can be happy to buy it as is (depending on the case) but this says a lot about the seller.
I remember when he said he was going to do that, a good proportions of comments were about how he will slash a most of his Twitter followers by doing so. Did Elon himself thought there were less bots than what the majority of people believed?
Why wouldn't they wait until money is already on the table? I just don't see how they would have benefited by disclosing real numbers beforehand.
It's far more likely no one could have done due diligence outside of the executives and top engineers at Twitter.
Sure he may be employing this as a stalling tactic, but there’s no obligation for him to treat the Twitter folks with kid glove either. This is what high stakes negotiations are about.
- Buying Twitter is a bit different to buying a house. The offer price for shares is set, and (as far as I know) Elon can't move it without withdrawing and reoffering, which incurs all sorts of fun legal issues and penalties.
- If it's due diligence and Elon actually might withdraw from the deal then fair enough, but then it's not a bluff.
- If it's a bluff, and Elon still intends to buy, telling the world there are actually more spam/bots than the Twitter reported devalues the company. It doesn't seem like a great move as an investor.