Elon Musk announced that he was putting his Twitter bid on hold "temporarily" pending details about the company's number of fake and spam accounts, which may represent 5% of users. In early trading, Twitter shares plunged on the news.
According to Reuters:
In a filing on Monday, Twitter released an estimate that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter.
The company reportedly had 229 million users who were monetizable through advertising in the first quarter.
Since one of Musk's priorities in acquiring the company would be the removal of spam bots, the news could lower the value of the company.
Twitter also said in the filing that there were several risks surrounding the deal with Musk, including whether advertisers would continue to spend money on Twitter with all the "potential uncertainty regarding [its] future plans and strategy."
This isn't the first time Elon Musk caused controversial waves in the market. Tesla stockholders are in current litigation with him for his tweets about taking Tesla private in 2018. And let's not forget how Dogecoin has lost 90% of its value since he pumped it before his appearance on Saturday Night Live and then panned it on the show.
(Of course, Dogecoin also got a boost yesterday when Elon said it still has potential as a currency.)
What game is Elon playing? Time will tell.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
