Elon Musk informs Twitter deal on hold after 5% of accounts on site reported to be spam

In a massive development, Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday informed that the deal to buy Twitter was "temporarily on hold" after the social network reported that false or spam accounts comprised less than 5% of its 226 million monetizable daily active users. The business tycoon, who offered to buy the microblogging site for $44 billion, tweeted a link to a May 2 report on Twitter's filing. 

Musk confirms Twitter deal on hold

Taking to Twitter, Elon Musk wrote, "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."

The tweet depicts the latest speedbump to hit Musk's attempted takeover of the social networking site. While writing this article, Twitter's share price had plunged 19% on the news of the deal is on hold. The company had initially announced a so-called 'poison pill' measure to prevent the takeover, before eventually accepting the buyout in late April. 

Musk's death under 'mysterious circumstances' tweet

The latest talk about the Taj Mahal and Tesla cars in India came a day after Musk triggered another wave of speculations by talking about his death in “mysterious circumstances”. Musk said on Twitter, “If I die under mysterious circumstances, it's been nice knowin ya” just a week after he announced the decision to buy the microblogging platform for $44 billion. 

Additionally, the post also claimed that the equipment was delivered in Ukraine by the US Department of Defence or Pentagon. Both the posts shared by Musk sparked speculation if the Tesla CEO is facing any sort of threat from Russia for helping Ukraine amid the war with Moscow. Musk’s SpaceX company has been involved in the Russia-Ukraine war when in February, the company’s Starlink satellite broadband service was activated in Ukraine after a minister from the war-torn nation called out for help.