Musk puts $44 bn Twitter deal ‘on hold’ over fake user accounts

Twitter shares plunged 19 per cent as Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday tweeted that he was putting the $44 billion twitter deal temporarily on hold till he gets to know how many fake or spam accounts are present on the micro-blogging platform.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 per cent of users,” Musk said in a tweet to his over 92 million followers.

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Musk posted a link to an earlier Reuters story that reported that Twitter estimates spam, and fake accounts comprise less than 5 per cent of users.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1525049369552048129?s=20&t=X4v95JdiJsPt4qA8fQpVDg

Twitter’s share price plunged 19 per cent on the news of the deal being put on hold.

Twitter estimated in a filing earlier this week that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users during the first quarter.

The micro-blogging platform had 229 million users in the first quarter.

Musk has signed a $44 billion deal to take over Twitter, of which he will pay $21 billion from his own pocket while the rest will come as a loan from a consortium of banks.