Elon Musk Says “Committed” To Twitter Deal Just After He Announced It Was “On Hold” – Update

Elon Musk now says he’s “still committed to acquisition” of Twitter, hours after he tweeted that the  $44 billion deal is “temporarily on hold,” sending Twitter stock into a tailspin and contributing to the circus-show quality of this deal.

Musk said then he was waiting for more details and due diligence around the social media platform’s revelation that fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users are false or spam accounts.

Twitter stock regained a few bucks after tweet no. 2 this morning but is still down 12% at $39.50 — well below Musk’s $54.20 a share bid as Wall speculates he he may be trying to back out of purchase or renegotiate the price.

Still committed to acquisition

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022

The world’s richest man tweeted in the past hour stating that he has put the deal on hold “pending details supporting the calculation”, which was contained in a Twitter filing Monday. The tweet is below.

Musk seems to be implying that he will not push through with the purchase until Twitter shows more evidence to back up the spambot claim.

As ever with the Tesla CEO, his intentions regarding the move are difficult to ascertain.

The filing, which was reported in a Reuters article linked by Musk, said fewer than 5% of Twitter’s monetizable active users during the first quarter of this year were false or spam accounts.

Musk has said one of his priorities once the deal has gone through would be to remove these spam bots from the platform.

There has also been much speculation around whether his acquiring Twitter could pave the way for a return to the platform for former POTUS Donald Trump, who was famously banned following the Capitol Riots.

Twitter’s share price tumbled around 23% in pre-market trading following the news.

Jill Goldsmith contributed this report