Elon Musk Says Twitter Takeover Is 'Temporarily On Hold'

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Elon Musk revealed his deal to takeover Twitter is "temporarily on hold" while sharing a Reuters article on the social media platform estimating that spam and fake accounts comprise less than 5% of its users.

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," Musk tweeted early Friday (May 13) morning.

Twitter accepted Musk's $44 billion buyout as part of a deal that is expected to close in 2022, the company confirmed in a news release obtained by CNN on April 25.

The entrepreneur has been vocal about his goal to clean up the social media platform's "spam bots," which mimic real people and appears to have questioned whether Twitter was underreporting such accounts, however, it's unclear what specifically led to the delay in the deal as the company didn't immediately respond to requests for comment made by the Associated Press following Musk's tweet on Friday.

Stock in Twitter and Musk's automotive and clean energy company, Tesla, went in opposite directions as Twitter dropped by 14% and Tesla rose 7%, before the opening bell on Friday.

Investigators have monitored Musk's legal issues, as well as whether acquiring Twitter would distract him from running Tesla, which is currently the world's most valuable automaker, after the company had previously dropped 16% earlier in the week.

Tesla's significant jump in its price of shares casted doubt that Musk's takeover of Twitter would take place.

The entrepreneur had sold more than $8 billion of his Tesla shares to finance his $44 billion buyout of the social media company, the AP reports.


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