Twitter’s takeover is on hold. Elon Musk will go ahead with his $44 billion deal only after he gets more information on Twitter’s recent announcement on prevalent spam and bot accounts on the platform.
Ironically, Musk tweeted about his decision to wait on Twitter through a tweet that reads:
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Two weeks ago, a report from Twitter talked about fake accounts making up less than 5 percent of the daily users. Even though this report was somewhat flexible in its assessment of spam accounts, it has compelled Musk to bring matters to a screeching halt.
Well, in another tweet, he declared his commitment to acquiring the platform.
Musk plans a crackdown on bot accounts to promote personal verification and combat spambots. Also, giving authorities the rights to prosecute those who have spoken speech laws. New users signing up to Twitter will have to undergo a more rigorous process of email or phone number verification to prove their identities.
Twitter shares fell by a staggering 25 percent in pre-trading, highlighting the impact of the acquisition on this announcement. Musk was overpaying by over 10 percent a share with his $44 billion offer. If he decides to pull out of the purchase, he will be paying Twitter $1 billion. Last month, this huge fee was agreed upon. Investors immediately made their panic known as Tesla stocks dropped sharply in the past two weeks because they feared Musk would sell off his shares in Tesla to finance the Twitter takeover.