Musk Declares $44 Billion Twitter Takeover ‘On Hold’

As he waits for data on its proportion of fake accounts, Musk has put his $44 billion takeover of Twitter on hold.

The deal was suspended pending details of the company's assertions that fake accounts contributed less than 5% of its users. The shares of the company rose.

According to a previous filing, the average number of false or fake accounts during the first quarter of the year represented less than 5% of the monthly active users.

Musk said in a statement announcing his deal to buy the social network that he wants to make it open source and defeat bots. Musk said he would like to make the platform a bastion of free speech.

Under the company's policy, bot accounts are supposed to indicate that they are automated. The platform has launched a label for good bots, such as@tinycarebot, an account that uses self-care reminders. The company has policies meant to combat them, and they are not permitted.

The top of the Musk's hit list is dominated by spammers.

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

Doubts have grown in recent days that Musk would be able to pull off his acquisition.

The spread on the deal, which is an indication of how much Wall Street thinks the takeover will cost, increased further on Thursday to $9.11 from $8.11 in the previous session. That was the widest level since the billionaire launched his bid last month to purchase the social network for $54.20, and doubled where it was last week when he announced a $7.1 billion financing commitment.

According to people with knowledge of the matter, Musk has been in talks with investors to raise enough equity and preferred financing to eliminate the need for a margin loan related to his shares.

He recently disclosed $7.1 billion in equity commitments from investors, including Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.