Elon Musk Places On Hold His Quest To Aquire Twitter

The world richest man, Elon Musk said he is putting his bid to acquire Twitter (TWTR) on hold, weeks after agreeing to take the company private in a $44 billion deal.

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," Musk tweeted on Friday.

The news initially sent Twitter shares down more than 20% in premarket trading before the stock rebounded somewhat. Two hours after his first tweet, Musk posted that he is "still committed to acquisition."

In its quarterly financial report, released on April 28, Twitter estimated that fake or spam accounts made up fewer than 5% of the platform's active users during the first three months of the year. Twitter noted that the estimates were based on a review of sample accounts and it believed the numbers to be "reasonable."

But it acknowledged that the measurements were not independently verified and the actual number of fake or spam accounts could be higher.

Twitter has had a spam problem for years, and the company has previously acknowledged that reducing fake and malicious accounts would play a key factor in its ability to keep growing. It's unclear why Musk would back away from the deal because of the latest disclosure.

Source:CNN Business