Elon Musk's Twitter Deal, Is 'Temporarily On Hold'.
The billionaire tweeted on May 13 that his deal to purchase Twitter was "on hold" due to an assessment of how many fake and spam accounts are active on the platform.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users, Elon Musk, via Twitter.
Musk's $44 billion deal to purchase the social media platform has continued to make
headlines since it was announced.
His tweet on May 13 seemed to indicate that he remains skeptical about the reported number of
bot accounts on Twitter.
He included a link to a Reuters article from May 2 which reports on Twitter's self-assessment of the platform. .
The company estimates that less than five percent of its 229 million users are comprised of fake accounts.
However, by its own assessment, the company acknowledges the estimate is likely inaccurate.
In making this determination,
we applied significant judgment, , Twitter Filing, via AP .
... so our estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts, , Twitter Filing, via AP .
... and the actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated, Twitter Filing, via AP .
Musk has been outspoken about the issue of spam accounts on the platform.
Subsequent tweets from the Tesla CEO stated that he is "still committed to the acquisition.".
In response to the news, Twitter stocks fell almost six percent on May 13 before the market opened.
Tesla stocks rose almost seven percent.
Analysts called Musk's tweet "bizarre" and say it could be an indication that
the deal may fall through.
Many will view this as Musk using this Twitter filing/spam accounts as a way to get out of this deal in a vastly changing market, Dan Ives, Wedbush Analyst, via AP