‘Friday 13th horror show’: Musk’s announcement that his Twitter buyout is on hold sends stock plummeting by 20 per cent
Elon Musk’s decision to put his $44bn takeover of Twitter on hold has sent the social media giant’s stock plummeting by almost 20 per cent.
The billionaire Tesla owner took to Twitter this morning announcing the deal was off, citing concerns over the amount of fake users.
He wrote: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 per cent of users,”
Following his announcement, the social media network’s shares fell 10 per cent as markets opened wiping off billions from the company, and bringing its market capitalisation to about $30bn.
The slide in value of the firm, which he agreed to buy for $44bn, was followed by another Tweet from Musk two hours after the original one saying he was “still committed to acquisition”.
The Tesla billionaire was criticised by Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities, who branded his “bizarre” announcement a bid to get out of a deal.
“The implications of this tweet will send this Twitter circus show into a Friday the 13th horror show as now the Street will view this deal as 1) likely falling apart, 2) Musk negotiating for a lower deal price, or 3) Musk simply walking away from the deal with a $1 billion breakup fee,” Ives said according to the Times.