From CNET: Elon Musk's $44B deal to buy Twitter is temporarily on hold, the tech entrepreneur tweeted on Friday, alongside a link to a Reuters article about spam accounts. The article reported that Twitter had said in a filing that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter of 2022.
In another tweet two hours later, Musk confirmed that he's "still committed to the acquisition." In the intervening period, Twitter share prices took a significant hit, tumbling over 20% in premarket trading.
In Musk's original tweet in the early hours of Friday morning, he said that the deal was on pause "pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users." When Twitter released the figure as part of its quarterly results in late April , it acknowledged the number was an estimation and the actual number of fake accounts "could be higher."
The deal comes at a tumultuous time for Twitter. The company has struggled to grow both its user base and its ad sales as it competes with bigger social media companies, and on Thursday it announced the departure of two senior executives alongside a hiring freeze.
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