Elon Musk says he’s put the blockbuster Twitter deal on hold

Elon Musk said his acquisition of Twitter for about $44 billion is temporarily on hold pending details on the amount of fake accounts on the social media platform.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk said in a tweet on Friday.
However, in another tweet, Musk said he is still committed to the deal. “Still committed to acquisition,” he said.
Still committed to acquisition— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
Last month, Twitter entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Mr Musk, for $54.20 a share in cash.
Upon completion of the transaction, which was expected by the end of this year, Twitter would become a privately-held company.
If Mr Musk decides to abandon the agreement he would have to pay the social media company a $1bn break-up fee.
Mr Musk sold about $8.5bn worth of his shares in Tesla to fund part of his buyout of Twitter. He has secured more than $7.1bn in new equity funding from a group of investors to help finance his $44bn acquisition of Twitter.
Eighteen investors have made commitments ranging from $850,000 to $1bn to help Mr Musk finance this deal, according to a regulatory filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
He said he has received equity commitment letters from various investors, including Sequoia Capital, Binance, Litani Ventures, Qatar Holdings, Vy Capital, Key Wealth advisers, Honeycomb Asset Management and Brookfield. This also includes a $1bn contribution from Larry Ellison, founder of Texas-based technology company Oracle.
Last month, Twitter reported a surge in first-quarter net income to $513.3 million, from $68m in the same period in 2021, days after it agreed to be sold to Mr Musk.
The billionaire may take Twitter public again after he finalises the acquisition to buy it, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Mr Musk may list Twitter as soon as three years after buying it, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.