Musk puts $44 bn Twitter deal 'on hold' over fake user accounts

In a stunning post, Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday said that he has put the $44 billion Twitter deal temporarily on hold till he gets to know how many fake or spam accounts are present on the micro-blogging platform.

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 per cent of users," Musk said in a tweet to his over 92 million followers. Twitter's share price plunged 19 per cent on the news of the deal being put on hold.

Musk posted a link of an earlier Reuters' story that reported that Twitter estimates spam, fake accounts comprise less than 5 per cent of users. Twitter estimated in a filing earlier this week that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users during the first quarter.

The micro-blogging platform had 229 million users in the first quarter. Musk has signed a $44 billion deal to take over Twitter, of which he will pay $21 billion from his own pocket while the rest will come as a loan from a consortium of banks.