Former Disney CEO ended Twitter deal after finding 'substantial' bot counts

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger said that he had ended the company's attempt to acquire Twitter after discovering that many accounts on Twitter were not real.

Iger's words seem to echo similar concerns Elon Musk expressed regarding his attempt to acquire Twitter. Iger said at an appearance Wednesday at the Code Conference that bots played a significant role in the company's decision to end its exploration of acquiring Twitter. The company had entered negotiations to purchase Twitter in 2016, but it pulled out months before the 2016 election.

"We, at that point, estimated with some of Twitter's help that a substantial portion, not a majority, were not real," Iger said. "I don't remember the number, but we discounted the value heavily. But that was built into our economics. Actually, the deal that we had was pretty cheap."