Elon Musk has put his $44 billion (£35 billion) proposal to acquire Twitter on hold, citing concerns over the amount of bogus or spam accounts on the network. He stated that he was awaiting facts "to corroborate [the] calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed comprise fewer than 5% of users." Mr. Musk has been outspoken about the need to eliminate spam accounts.

        Analysts believed that he may be attempting to renegotiate the price or perhaps walk away from the acquisition. Twitter shares plunged as much as 25% in pre-market trade after Mr Musk's remark. If either Twitter or Mr Musk decides to leave, they must pay the other side a $1 billion termination fee.

        Fake accounts accounted for less than 5% of Twitter's daily active users in the first three months of this year, according to a research released more than two weeks ago. However, the corporation admitted that it "used substantial judgment" in calculating the number of spam accounts, thus "our assessment of fraudulent or spam accounts may not precisely represent the real number of such accounts."

        "It's possible that the number of fake or spam accounts is bigger than we thought. We're always looking for ways to increase our capacity to estimate the total number of spam accounts "it stated. Mr Musk, the world's richest man, according to Forbes magazine, is now looking into that statistic. Twitter has long had a problem with automated, phony accounts posting stuff incessantly.

        Mr Musk has called for "fighting the spam bots" on Twitter, as well as a slew of other improvements, including the reinstatement of certain banned accounts, including former US President Donald Trump's. Mr Musk's remark, according to Dan Ives, a tech analyst at investment company Wedbush Securities, will "turn this Twitter circus act into a Friday the 13th horror show."

        He predicted that Wall Street would now "see this transaction as 1) likely breaking apart, 2) Musk negotiating a lower deal price, or 3) Musk simply walking away with a $1 billion break-up fee." If Mr Musk decides to go forward with the agreement, Mr Ives says a "obvious renegotiation is certainly on the table."

        Many people would see his bringing up the number of spam accounts "as a way out of this contract in a rapidly changing industry," he said. "Musk's habit of generating so much ambiguity via a tweet (rather than a file) is highly disturbing to us... and now turns this whole agreement into a circus show with numerous questions and no firm answers as to the deal's future ahead."

        The Tesla CEO's latest move comes after two Twitter execs announced their departure from the firm. On Thursday, Kayvon Beykpour, who handled Twitter's consumer division, and Bruce Falck, who supervised revenue, both posted that the departures were not their choices.

        Except for "business vital tasks," the firm has suspended most recruiting as of this week. Another twist in Elon Musk's quest to take over Twitter.

        He stated that one of his top goals was to "clean up" the site, removing bots and spam accounts that he feels slow it down. Spend any amount of time on it, and you'll see signs of both. Twitter, on the other hand, claims that less than 5% of its active users are fraudulent.

        So does this imply that there is no diamond in the rough to be polished here, and that what you see on Twitter is exactly what you get? Is it less value as a proposal if such is the case? Mr. Musk needs to think about anything.