Elon Musk announced his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is on hold until he receives more information about fake accounts on the social media platform.
Mucks said he was waiting for information supporting the calculation that spam or fake accounts represent less than 5% of users. Twitter’s share price fell as much as 20% in pre-market trading after Musk’s announcement.
The billionaire however tweeted two hours later that he was “still committed to the acquisition.”
Under the terms of the deal, if either Twitter or Musk decide to cancel the deal, they must pay the other part $1 billion as termination fee.
Musk has been vocal on cleaning up spam accounts and making more transparent the social media. He even said last week that he would lift the ban on Donald Trump’s account.
Twitter said the company was committed to clearing the number of fake accounts.
“The actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated. We are continually seeking to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam accounts,” the company said in a statement.
Analysts are speculating that Musk could be seeking to renegotiate the price, or even walk away from the takeover. Musk, who is expected to serve as Twitter’s temporary CEO is worth more than $220 billion.
