By John Ikani
Elon Musk said Friday that his plans to buy Twitter were “on hold.”
The reason, he tweeted, was a probe into a “calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
In a subsequent tweet, Musk said he was “still committed to acquisition”, amid speculation that the world’s richest man was about to walk away from the deal or seek a lower price.
Still committed to acquisition
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
Twitter had earlier this month estimated that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its 229 million monetizable daily
active users.
Musk has previously said one of his priorities once the deal has gone through would be to make Twitter “better than ever” by “defeating the spam bots and authenticating all humans.”
It wasn’t clear whether the issue could scuttle the deal. Shares of both Twitter and Tesla swung sharply in opposite directions, with Twitter’s stock tumbling 17% to $37.20 before trading opened in the U.S, and Tesla, which Musk had proposed using to help fund the Twitter deal, jumping 5%. Twitter’s stock price is now well below the $54.20 per share that Musk agreed to pay for the company.
Calling Musk’s tweet “bizarre,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said, “The implications of this tweet will send this Twitter circus show into a Friday the 13th horror show as now the Street will view this deal as 1) likely falling apart, 2) Musk negotiating for a lower deal price, or 3) Musk simply walking away from the deal with a $1 billion breakup fee.”
