Fmr. Disney CEO: Twitter deal nixed after finding ‘substantial portion’ of fake users
Twitter maintains less than 5% of users are spam, bots
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger said on Wednesday that the company determined a "substantial portion" of Twitter's users were "not real" in 2016, when Disney was considering a deal to acquire the social media platform.
As a result of those findings, Iger said during the Code Conference in California that he remembered "discounting the value."
Twitter has consistently reported that fewer than 5% of its "monetizable" daily users are bot or spam accounts.
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FOX Business' request for comment from Twitter was not immediately returned.
Then-Disney CEO Robert Iger poses during the 2020 Oscars Nominees Luncheon at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on January 27, 2020. (Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Iger, who had previously spoken about the deal, cited the extraordinary "nastiness" on Twitter as a factor for rethinking the deal.
In 2019, he told The New York Times, that the "troubles were greater than [he] wanted to take on, greater than [he] thought it was responsible for [the company] to take on."
"Like a lot of these platforms, they have the ability to do a lot of good in our world. They also have an ability to do a lot of bad," he said.
The Twitter feed of entrepreneur and billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk seen in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland, on September 1, 2022. (Photo by STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Iger's recent comments come amid a legal battle between Twitter and user Elon Musk.
Musk is attempting to walk away from a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. He has claimed that Twitter has misrepresented how many spam or bot accounts it has.
Twitter has sued Musk to hold him to the deal.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk smiles as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 meeting in Stavanger, Norway on Aug. 29, 2022. (Photo by Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, a Delaware judge on Wednesday rejected Musk's request to delay the trial over his potential purchase.
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Musk had requested a delay at the end of August after a whistleblower at Twitter claimed the company made false claims about its security capabilities. He is seeking to avoid a $1 billion fine for canceling his purchase.
The trial is set to begin on Oct. 17.
FOX Business' Anders Hagstrom, James Leggate and Reuters contributed to this report.