Elon Musk, who was in the process of buying Twitter, announced Friday that the deal is “temporarily on hold.” Hours later, he said he was “still committed” to his $44 billion purchase.
“Twitter deal temporarily pending details supports calculation that spam/fake accounts actually represent less than 5% of users,” Musk tweeted, detailing Twitter’s disclosure on spam accounts. Giving is linked to a Reuters article from last week.
It was not immediately clear how Metric influenced Musk’s decision to buy the company.
Musk’s misleading announcement is probably related to financing, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America. Musk, who also runs Tesla, used Tesla shares as collateral for a loan secured for the Twitter purchase. But Tesla’s share price, along with other tech stocks, has tumbled in recent weeks.
“If Tesla stock keeps falling, it won’t even have enough shares left to guarantee the loan,” Carusone tweeted Friday.
“So, no, I don’t think of bots that way. It’s about @alonemusk’s ideology going beyond its obligations to Tesla shareholders and their erratic behavior that undermines Tesla’s value,” Carusone said. wrote in a later tweet.
New York Times tech columnist Cara Swisher Featuring Musk’s Comments About spam accounts as an excuse to walk away, by downplaying the $1 billion breakup fee, and then “come back at a lower price.”
“Ironically, someone like him could actually reform Twitter as a private company, but he couldn’t resist shaking hands on all sorts of topics,” Swisher said in a separate tweet. “They should have kept quiet and paid the breakup fee, bought more shares and waited. But there will be chaos!”
Musk last month struck a deal with Twitter’s board to buy the social media giant for $44 billion, saying he had secured enough funding to do so. According to Bloomberg, the deal includes a termination fee of $1 billion, which Musk will have to pay.
The company itself is also going through changes before the deal. Periscope co-founder Kayvan Bekpore announced his departure on Thursday, saying Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal asked him to resign.
“Told me to leave after Parag told me he wanted to take the team in a different direction,” Becpour tweeted.
Twitter Product Lead Bruce Falk, On Thursday also left the company.
Musk’s announcements follow a series of statements he made about the platform this week, including his intention to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account.
“I will reverse the permanent ban,” Musk said at an event for the Financial Times on Tuesday. “I don’t have Twitter yet. So it’s not something that will happen for sure, because what if I don’t have Twitter?
This article has been updated by Musk to say that he is still committed to the deal.
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