Elon Musk says he's 'still committed' to buying Twitter but deal is now 'temporarily on hold'

(Image credit: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

published 13 May 2022

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is now on hold, according to the Tesla CEO.

On Friday, Musk tweeted that his planned purchase on Twitter is "temporarily on hold pending details supporting" a calculation that spam and fake accounts represent less than 5 percent of users on the platform. He linked to a Reuters report, which said Twitter provided this estimate in a recent filing.

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According to The New York Times, some analysts saw Musk's tweet as an attempt to drive down the price of his Twitter purchase or set the stage to actually back out of it. "Many will view this as Musk using this Twitter filing/spam accounts as a way to get out of this deal in a vastly changing market," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said, while CNN commentator Catherine Rampell suggested his concern over spam accounts could be a "cover story for other reasons to put the deal on hold or try to renegotiate it."

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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