Elon Musk temporarily put his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on hold, pending some details. Following his announcement on social media, Twitter shares fell 19%.
Elon Musk and the temporary suspension of his acquisition of Twitter
A few hours ago, the notorious Elon Musk posted a tweet warning his followers that Twitter’s $44 billion deal is “temporarily suspended,” to verify that fake social media accounts are actually less than 5%.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts account for less than 5% of users.”
In the tweet, Musk cites a May 2 Reuters report that published an estimate of bot activity on the social media platform.
Wanting to eliminate spam on Twitter is not such a new proposition. In fact, on May 2, Musk himself shared a discussion on the subject, in which billionaire businessman Mark Cuban intervened to suggest the use of Dogecoin as a solution.
Shares of the social network fell 19%
The market’s reaction to the news of the “temporary suspension” of the Twitter deal caused the value of the shares to fall 19%. However, last week, an SEC filing was released showing the list of 18 sponsors who had come forward with their funds to back the deal. The richest man in the world has been looking for a way to spend as little cash as possible out of his own pocket, striking deals with major corporations and high net worth individuals. to obtain financing. on the list is Binancethe largest crypto exchange, with a financing of 500 million dollars. But also Fidelity with a capital commitment of $316 million and the venture capital Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust, which has proposed a whopping $1 billion.
From the problem of spam to the battle for freedom of expression
Apparently, the current issue over spam and fake accounts has prompted the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX to call off the entire deal with Twitter. Who knows if his battle for the “freedom of expression”, so promoted since before his first purchase of 10% of Twitter, is also temporarily suspended. Musk recently also stated that he would unblock the account of the former american president donald trump on the social network, as the permanent ban decision was “morally wrong”. The former president’s account had been banned on January 8, 2021 by decision of the former CEO of Twitter, jack dorseyshortly after a mob of supporters of the former president invaded the United States Capitol.
