A recent tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk has put the Twitter deal ‘temporarily on pause’ due to bots. He blamed the bots on “spam and fake accounts” on the social network. In his tweet, Musk said the deal was “temporarily on hold pending further details”. Twitter has not yet responded to Reuters’ request for comment. Musk said one of his priorities was to get rid of bots and spam accounts.
The spread between the offer price and the price of Twitter shares has increased in recent days, sparking speculation that Musk may walk away from the deal. The tweets are not the first signs of the downturn in Twitter’s stock price. The company’s CEO has been toying with the deal for a while and could decide to pull out at any time if the deal doesn’t go through.
The Twitter deal with Tesla has hit a bump in the road. Elon Musk has previously expressed displeasure over the ban on former president Donald Trump’s account and has repeatedly criticised Twitter for its policies regarding bots. The company’s CEO also said that he was open to lifting the ban. Musk’s comments are not surprising, considering the billions he’s invested in Tesla.
The Tesla CEO has been vocal in his criticism of Twitter’s bot problem and has also publicly asked for clarification regarding the amount of fake and spam accounts. The SEC has recently scrutinized the Twitter deal, and Elon Musk has responded by tweeting that he believes Twitter underreports the number of fake and spam accounts. The Twitter quarterly report says that the number of fake and spam accounts is less than 5% of its monetizable daily active users.
This issue could indicate that Twitter’s management is in turmoil, which may impact the Tesla-Twitter deal. The company’s shares have fallen along with most other stocks this year, and Musk’s sales of Tesla shares has put additional pressure on them. Despite this news, Tesla supporters may be glad to see that Twitter’s deal with Tesla isn’t moving forward.
Although Elon Musk has put the Twitter deal ‘temporarily on holds’ due to bots, the news has sparked a heated debate over the issue. Musk has said that he would allow Trump to return to Twitter, and that he would err on the side of free speech. However, he added that the issue of bots was more about bots than bots.
Since the Tweet by Musk was posted, Tesla shares had plunged by over four billion dollars. That’s because Musk has been selling more than $8 billion of Tesla stock in an effort to fund the purchase of Twitter. But with his recent Twitter stake, Tesla investors are worried that Musk will use the stake in Tesla to fund the Twitter deal. The tweet was also widely read by investors who had been concerned about Musk’s leverage of his Tesla shares.