Twitter stock

Shares of Twitter Inc. tumbled Friday, after Elon Musk said he was putting the deal to buy the social-media company "temporarily on hold" while he does his.

On April 25, Twitter agreed to be acquired by Musk for $54.20 a share. Since April 4, when Musk disclosed his Twitter stake, Tesla’s stock had plunged 36.4% through Thursday. Musk first disclosed his stake in Twitter on April 4, then said on April 14 that he was launching an unsolicited bid for the company. Dan Ives, the prolific Wedbush analyst, said the implications of Musk’s “bizarre tweet” will send this “Twitter circus show into a Friday the 13th horror show.” He said investors could now view the deal as falling apart, or that Musk is negotiating for a lower deal price or that Musk might simply walk away from the deal with a $1 billion breakup fee. But since Musk launched the bid, the closest Twitter’s stock came to closing at the $54.20 bid price was April 25, when it closed at $51.70. Shares of Twitter Inc. tumbled Friday, after Elon Musk said he was putting the deal to buy the social-media company “temporarily on hold” while he does his due diligence on fake accounts.

After Musk tweeted that the Twitter acquisition was "on hold," financial analysts aren't sure the buyout will go ahead as planned.

Financial analysts were split on whether Musk’s bot concerns had put the deal in jeopardy. Twitter has also struggled, announcing an overcount of user numbers in its most recent earnings and continuing to operate at a loss. Twitter had claimed in a filing that bots compose less than 5 percent of daily active users on the platform, although many believe the real figure is higher.

Hindenburg Research founder, who recently shorted Twitter, was in a jubilant mood when the social giant's stock price went tumbling early in the session.

“We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our [daily average users] during the quarter,” Twitter revealed in its first-quarter letter to shareholders. In a Twitter post, he said he needs to confirm first whether the number of fake accounts is indeed as low as management has said. As of Friday, it looks as if Elon Musk has found in the company’s bot analysis the excuse he may have been looking for to try to renegotiate the $44 billion price tag on his Twitter bid—or drop it entirely.

Twitter (TWTR -8.79%) shareholders were taken on yet another wild ride this morning after Tesla CEO Elon Musk -- who is attempting to acquire the social ...

But Musk sent shareholders into a tizzy this morning after he posted a tweet saying that the deal is "temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users." If that proves true, it's possible Musk could try to renegotiate the deal. Just two hours later, Musk followed up with another update, saying that he was still committed to the deal.

Elon Musk said Friday that his plan to buy Twitter is “temporarily on hold,” raising doubts about whether he'll proceed with his proposed $44 billion ...

Musk’s tweet comes a day after the social media company fired two of its top managers. The proposed deal continued to pressure shares of Tesla, which had already fallen 16% this week. The Tesla equity share could go from $21 billion to $27.25 billion. In its quarterly filing with the SEC, Twitter doubted that its count of bot accounts was correct, conceding that the estimate may be low. Musk has been vocal about his desire to clean up Twitter's problem with “spam bots” that mimic real people and appeared to question whether the company was underreporting them. Tesla shares may have benefitted from Twitter bot accounts over the years as well.

The Tesla CEO's decision to put his takeover plan on hold raises the question of what the risk is for investors that the deal won't go through.

- Print Article - Order Reprints What’s an ‘Arb Spread?’ Here’s How to Calculate It for Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal.

Mr. Musk said he wanted to confirm Twitter's findings that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5 percent of its users.

Mr. Leaf said Mr. Musk should be concerned about how securities regulators may react to postings on Twitter that have direct ramifications on the deal to buy the company. He also said it was unclear if Mr. Musk’s postings on Twitter would require an updated filing with regulators about his plans to take the social media company private, since they are considered material information to investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Mr. Musk with securities fraud in 2018 after he falsely tweeted that he had secured funding to take Tesla private, sending the automaker’s shares up 6 percent. If a deal were to be completed, business challenges at Twitter could force Mr. Musk to draw further on his Tesla stock to plug potential financial holes. The fluctuations in shares of Twitter and Tesla that followed Mr. Musk’s tweets could draw scrutiny. Twitter had disclosed figures about fake accounts before Mr. Musk made his bid, leaving some to view his comments as a tactic to drive down the price of the acquisition or a pretext for eventually backing out altogether. Mr. Musk’s hand might be strengthened by the uncertainty his bid has created within Twitter, which could potentially make it harder for the company to continue independently. In his initial tweet, Mr. Musk made reference to a May 2 regulatory filing by Twitter that included an estimate that fewer than 5 percent of Twitter’s users were spam and fake accounts. Mr. Musk’s deal with Twitter includes a $1 billion break up fee if he were to step away. First, in a pre-dawn tweet, Mr. Musk said the deal was on hold. Twitter has few restrictions on signing up for an account, and the company has long struggled with spam and bots. While most acquisitions of this scale are handled in a certain choreographed manner, Mr. Musk has opted for a more improvisational approach.

The Tesla and SpaceX mogul said he needs to make sure the fake accounts "do indeed represent less than 5%" of Twitter's users, as the company has estimated.

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

Shares of the social-media company fell after Elon Musk said his deal to buy it was “on hold.”

- Saks Fifth Avenue:$20 off sitewide + free shipping - Saks Fifth Avenue coupon Shares of Twitter shed $4.36, or 9.7%, to $40.72, its the lowest level since April 1, just before Mr. Musk disclosed a surprise 9% stake in the company. You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service.

It was a rocky week for Tesla shares– until Musk's early Friday tweet. That helped the electric vehicle maker regain some lost ground.

And with Musk having indicated that he’s no longer interested in pledging his Tesla shares to secure additional debt financing (he’s already pledged more than half his Tesla stake as collateral for loans pre-acquisition), it’s likely that the rest of his equity commitment will have to come from outside investors. Even if he were to secure that financing, it’s unclear where most of the additional $27.3 billion equity commitment he made to Twitter’s board will come from. Forbes estimates Musk has about $8 billion of cash on hand after selling more than $8 billion of Tesla shares last month (pre-tax) and pledging to sell no more. “If it looks like Musk may call the [Twitter] deal off, Twitter stock could fall like a stone, as the deal price is all that is supporting it today.” According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who covers Tesla, the partial rebound of the electric vehicle maker’s shares Friday reflects investor sentiment that the deal is now less likely to happen, despite a follow-up tweet by Musk two hours later Friday morning that he is “still committed to acquisition.” With a single tweet at 5:44 AM Friday, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk simultaneously placed his $44 billion Twitter takeover on hold and demonstrated the platform’s power to move markets.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said Friday that he still expects the deal to sell the company to Elon Musk will close.

Musk tweeted earlier on Friday that the deal is on hold until he finds out more details on how many fake accounts, like spam bots, are on the platform. Two executives also left the company, including head of consumer product Kayvon Beykpour, who said Agarwal asked him to leave. "I'm accountable for leading and operating Twitter, and our job is to build a stronger Twitter every day."

The Tesla chief executive later said he is still committed to the $44 billion deal.

Tesla has warned of the risks it faces because of the amount of Tesla stock Musk has committed as collateral. Musk launched his ownership bid with a goal to promote “free speech” on the site, a stance some employees worry could lead to the rollback of safety policies the company has put in place to protect users online. If Musk walks away from the deal, Twitter would be forced into an expensive and lengthy legal battle to recover damages for the havoc Musk has wreaked on the company. Musk has leveraged much of his Tesla stock as collateral for his loans, making the recent economic downturn a particular issue for his bid. “I can only say that in merger terms, it’s a fairly slender reed for canceling a deal,” said Ann Lipton, a law professor at Tulane University. “Sometimes this kind of thing is used as a basis for renegotiating a deal price, but again, unless the problem is having far more impact on Twitter financially than has been reported, it’s not strong ground for that, either.” Musk had planned to buy Twitter with a combination of loans and equity commitments, leveraging into the deal much of his stake in the most valuable automaker, from which he derives most of his wealth. CNBC also reported Thursday that angel investor Jason Calacanis was lining up investors to participate in the Musk ownership bid. But his public declaration was an unusual and unexpected maneuver at this stage of the negotiations, according to financial experts and people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Before the tweet, Musk already was seeking additional investors for the purchase as a market downturn put pressure on his financing. “I won’t use the deal as an excuse to avoid making important decisions for the health of the company, nor will any leader at Twitter,” he said. Investors in the electric automaker, led by Musk, have been concerned about the billionaire leveraging his stake to fund the Twitter deal. The increase in prices Friday allowed Musk to recoup some of his net worth, while also reducing the market value of the company he is seeking to buy.

The Tesla CEO said his deal to buy Twitter was 'temporarily on hold,' but then said hours later he is committed to the transaction.

A tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent Twitter shares sharply lower. The Tesla (ticker: TSLA) CEO said Friday his deal to buy Twitter (TWTR) was “temporarily on hold” pending a calculation related to the number of fake accounts on Twitter. Twitter Stock Plunges as Elon Musk Tweets About Acquisition