Elon Musk Says His Twitter Deal Is 'Temporarily On Hold' & He's Blaming Bots For The Delay

It looks like being the world's richest man hasn't prevented Elon Musk from encountering hiccups in his effort to buy Twitter.

Musk announced on Twitter early Friday that his plan to buy the social media platform for $44 billion is "temporarily on hold."

He says the holdup involves a calculation about the number of "spam/fake accounts" on the platform. He also shared shared a Reuters article about Twitter's estimate that spam and fake accounts comprise less than 5% of the platform's users.

Basically, he wants some assurances that those numbers are accurate.

He followed it with a reassurance that he is "still committed to acquisition."

Since posting the tweet, Twitter's stock took a 25% tumble, reported Bloomberg.

A report released by Twitter a few weeks ago said they "applied significant judgment, so [their] estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts, and the actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than [they] have estimated."

Musk has been adamant about wiping out all spam accounts from the platform when he acquires it, and he's now waiting on Twitter to come back with the exact percentage.

He's also promised to unban the accounts of some prominent figures, including former U.S. President Donald Trump.

There has been speculation for weeks now that the deal might not go through, either because Musk might struggle to put the cash together or because he might simply change his mind or break the rules of the deal.

Analysts speculate that Musk might be trying to renegotiate the price or even trying to end the deal altogether, reported the BBC.

"There will also be questions raised over whether fake accounts are the real reason behind this delaying tactic," Susannah Streeter, a senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told Bloomberg.

"Given that promoting free speech rather than focusing on wealth creation appeared to be his primary motivation for the takeover. The $44 billion price tag is huge, and it may be a strategy to row back on the amount he is prepared to pay to acquire the platform," added Streeter.

According to the terms of Musk's deal with Twitter, if either of them walks away it'll cost them a $1 billion termination fee.