Elon Musk says his $ 44 billion Twitter deal has been “temporarily withheld” as the social media giant’s shares fell 25% in pre-market trading
- Tesla’s CEO announced this morning that his huge takeover bid has been delayed
- He wants more information on the number of spam and fake accounts
- Twitter said earlier this month that spam accounts accounted for less than 5% of the total
- Shares fell 25% in pre-market trading, continuing the huge downward trend
By Jack Newman for Mailonline
Posted: 10:57, 13 May 2022 | Updated: 11:31, 13 May 2022
Elon Musk has announced that his $ 44 billion Twitter acquisition has been suspended pending details on the number of spam and bot accounts on the social media platform.
The company said earlier this month that fake or spam accounts accounted for less than 5 percent of its 229 million users in the first quarter.
But Musk is now halting his huge takeover, demanding more information on the numbers.
Shares of the social media company fell 25% in pre-market trading this morning, continuing a huge downward trend after its takeover bid was announced on April 25th.
The world’s richest man said on Twitter today: “The Twitter deal has been suspended pending details to support the calculation that spam / fake accounts actually account for less than 5% of users.”
Elon Musk’s $ 44 billion Twitter acquisition has been suspended pending details on the number of spam and bot accounts on the social media platform
He linked a May 2 report by Reuters, which said Twitter calculated that bots were only a small percentage of the site’s users.
It is not clear what the legal force of his notice was.
Prices have been falling since the Musk buyout deal was negotiated by the technology giant.
The deal to announce that Tesla’s CEO is taking the company private was announced on April 25, when shares closed at $ 51.70.
Since then, prices have been falling lower until their last close on Thursday at $ 45.08.
Twitter did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Musk is now halting his huge takeover, demanding more information on the numbers
Twitter said it faces several risks while the deal with Musk is concluded, including whether advertisers will continue to spend on Twitter.
Musk said one of his priorities would be to remove spam bots from the platform.
The announcement is another twist amid signs of internal turmoil over its planned buyout on Twitter, including that social media company fired two of its top executives on Thursday.
It was revealed yesterday that Tesla’s CEO’s purchase was being investigated by US regulators after he delayed reporting on the purchase – and thus failed to provide enough warning that an offer to take over was being made.
The 50-year-old’s first move to buy Twitter was to buy him a 9.2% stake in the technology company in mid-February.
But he did not disclose his purchase to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until at least 10 days later, on April 4.
Any investor who passes a 5% share must submit a form to the SEC within 10 days. It serves as an early sign to stakeholders that a large investor may seek to control the company.
Musk’s April 4 statement also described his stake as passive, meaning he had no plans to take over Twitter or influence his management or business.
The next day, however, he was offered a position on Twitter, and a few weeks later the world’s richest man struck a $ 44 billion deal to buy the social media giant.
The SEC investigation was first reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.
This week, Musk also sparked a heated debate after saying he would allow Donald Trump to return to Twitter if and when he takes the reins, according to his previous statements that he plans to wrong the freedom of speech side. not on bans and censorship.
Add Comment