Musk’s $44 Billion Twitter Acquisition Deal ‘on Hold’ Causing Shares to Plunge

On Friday, Elon Musk revealed that his $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter Inc. has been put “temporarily on hold”, triggering a share plunge in the social media platform.

According to Reuters, the Tesla CEO tweeted, "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users." However, Musk assured his followers that he is still determined to ensure the takeover deal comes into fruition.

Twitter’s shares plummeted by 16% to $38.06 per share during premarket trading in New York, falling below the $54.20 per share acquisition deal price. However, Tesla Inc.’s shares edged higher by 5%.

The temporary hold comes as Musk awaits information on the number of spam accounts in the social media platform, reported Reuters. However, as per Twitter’s regulatory filings, the number of fake accounts in its platform have consistently remained below 5% since 2013, causing experts to wonder why Musk was bringing it up now.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s Susannah Streeter contended, "This 5% metric has been out for some time. He clearly would have already seen it...So it may well be more part of the strategy to lower the price."

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