San Francisco: Twitter shares fell late Thursday after The Washington Post reported that Elon muskA $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant is in danger.
The world’s richest man has expressed skepticism before and even said he could get away with worrying about what he believes is an abundance of fake accounts.
According to the post, however, despite being given access to internal data, Musk has been unable to pin down the percentage of Twitter accounts that are not genuine.
While Musk has already made comments casting his commitment to the deal into doubt, the latest report, citing an unnamed source, said his team is preparing for a “change of direction.”
Twitter shares, which were already trading below the price offered by Musk, sank nearly four percent on the news in after-market trades.
“The Twitter soap opera is clearly coming to some sort of finale in the coming months as Musk decides to stay (with a reduced price) or go,” wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors.
“The Twitter deal has clearly caused chaos on Twitter.”
Ives expected Musk to disclose concerns surrounding his fake account in the coming weeks.
during Qatar Economic Forum Last month, Musk said his Twitter purchases have been halted because of “very important” questions about the number of fake users on the social network.
“So we’re still waiting for a solution on that matter and it’s a very important matter,” the Tesla car and SpaceX exploration chief said via a video link to the gathering.
Twitter executives have firmly maintained that less than five percent of accounts are fake, with Musk saying he believes the number is much higher.
Musk said there were also questions about Twitter’s debt.
Ives said Musk is less likely to buy Twitter as he originally negotiated.
Wedbush set the deal at 60 percent at a lower price, leaving the door open to the possibility Musk would try to get away with only paying a required $1 billion breakup fee.
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