Elon Musk Says $44 Billion Twitter Deal on Hold

Elon Musk said on Friday that the $44 billion deal of Twitter Inc was put on hold temporarily due to the pending details on fake and spam accounts. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a Tweet, “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam or fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”

Earlier this month, the company estimated that less than 5% of monetizable daily active users in the first quarter were either fake or spam accounts. It also states that it faces some risks, such as whether advertisers will continue to invest in Twitter until the deal with Musk is completed.

Musk also states that he wants to make the platform a bastion of free speech and remove the guardrail of content moderation. The bot is currently allowed on Twitter, but according to the company policy, such accounts are automated.

According to people familiar with the matter, Musk has been discussing with investors to raise sufficient equity and preferred loans for a planned acquisition of Twitter and a margin loan related to Tesla shares.