What happened
Twitter (TWTR) shareholders were taken on yet another wild ride this morning after Tesla CEO Elon Musk -- who is attempting to acquire the social media platform -- sent out a tweet this morning saying that the deal was on hold. Just two hours later, Musk followed up with another update, saying that he was still committed to the deal.
The tech stock is down by 8.5% as of 10:43 a.m. ET.
So what
Musk has offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, part of which he will obtain by selling some of his shares of Tesla. He will also get funding through other investors. But Musk sent shareholders into a tizzy this morning after he posted a tweet saying that the deal is "temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."
Image source: Getty Images.
Musk linked to a previous Reuters article that highlighted the fact that Twitter's management said in the first quarter that an internal review found false or spam accounts account for only about 5% of the company's monetizable daily active users.
Twitter said in its first-quarter report that the figure came from a "review of a sample of accounts" and that the figure is an estimate.
Still committed to acquisition
-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
About two hours after Musk sent out the tweet about the deal being on hold, he followed up with another post saying he was "still committed to acquisition."
Now what
It's no surprise that Twitter shareholders are reacting strongly to Musk's tweets this morning. His comments have thrown them for a loop as he tries to figure out whether Twitter has more fake accounts than it originally stated.
If that proves true, it's possible Musk could try to renegotiate the deal. Either way, Twitter shareholders are a bit on edge this morning as they digest Musk's tweets, which have come during a time when the market is already experiencing enough volatility on its own.
