Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter has been delayed until he receives more information about fake accounts on the platform, he said.
Twitter said fake and spam accounts accounted for less than 5% of users of its platform, in a submission earlier this month.
In a tweet, Mr. Musk contacted this information and said that the deal would be postponed until he saw the reasons for this calculation.
“The Twitter deal has been suspended pending details to support the calculation that spam / fake accounts actually account for less than 5% of users,” he wrote.
The news prompted Twitter’s stock price to fall 20 percent to about $ 36 in pre-market trading amid fears the deal could not be made. The shares were already trading well below Mr. Musk’s offer of $ 54.20 per share.
Mr Musk did not indicate whether he was particularly concerned about the number or whether he believed it was different. He also did not say why the decision was made to pause the deal now that the 5 per cent figure was revealed almost two weeks ago.
In the same documentation, Twitter said there were 229 million users who were shown advertising, a key internal indicator. Mr Musk’s takeover proposal is also said to pose special risks to the company, including concerns about whether advertisers will continue to spend on the platform and “potential uncertainty about our future plans and strategy”.
Mr Musk has made the removal of spam and fake accounts a central part of his proposal to buy Twitter.
He is personally affected by the proliferation of these accounts on the platform, with a number of fraudsters posing as Mr Musk and trying to deceive other users into cryptocurrency fraud.
Although the Twitter board accepted the offer to buy Twitter, the deal could take months to complete.
Mr Musk also retains the option to leave the deal – although he will have to pay a $ 1 billion fee if he does.
His announcement that the deal had been delayed came hours after Twitter said two of its executives had been fired for what he said was a “change of direction”.
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