Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal 'Temporarily On Hold Over Spam'

Third Position shares a report from The Verge: Elon Musk says his deal to buy Twitter is 'temporarily on hold' after the social network reported that false or spam accounts comprised less than 5 percent of its 226 million monetizable daily active users. The Tesla CEO, who offered to buy twitter for $44 billion, tweeted a link to a May 2nd Reuters report on Twitter's filing, saying he wants to see the company's calculations. 'Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,' Musk tweeted. However, in a follow-up tweet, he added that he's 'still committed to [the] acquisition,' suggesting that it'll proceed after Twitter provides satisfactory information on its numbers. Slashdot reader Excelcia shared a similar report from the BBC, which cited analysts speculating 'he could be seeking to renegotiate the price or even walk away from the takeover.'

'One analyst, as quoted in the story, suggests that 'Many will view this as Musk using this Twitter filing/spam accounts as a way to get out of this deal in a vastly changing market,'' writes Excelcia. 'Shares have dropped another 10% since the announcement.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.