Elon Musk Says He's Committed to Twitter Deal After Putting It on Hold

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said he is committed to his $42 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter (TWTR) after putting it on hold earlier on Friday. Musk said in an earlier tweet that he is putting the deal on hold till he can verify that spam or fake accounts represent fewer than 5% of the total users on Twitter.

Twitter estimates that fewer than 5% of the accounts on the site are spam or fake, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Musk claimed in April that he wanted to authenticate every Twitter user.

Twitter's share price was down over 17% at $37.2 in premarket trading, while Tesla shares were up over 5% at $769.27 in premarket trading.

The merger agreement, on page 30 of the filing, states that Musk will have to pay $1 billion in the form of a termination fee if the takeover falls through.

Unmute

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Musk is seeking new funding for the Twitter takeover, as he looks to scrap previous plans to take a margin loan against Tesla stock.

The Tesla CEO started his takeover campaign of the social media site last month by buying a prominent stake in Twitter and then offered to buy the firm for $54.2 per share, which would value the company at around $41.4 billion.

The offer was initially reportedly rebuffed by Twitter's board but was later accepted. Musk said he wants Twitter to be a platform dedicated to free speech.

Musk is also a prominent supporter of cryptocurrencies over the past few years, often discussing popular memecoin dogecoin (DOGE) and bitcoin (BTC) on social media.

Dogecoin slumped by more than 7% following Musk's statement on the Twitter deal. It has since recovered back to $0.0904 after trading at a low of $0.0869.

Tesla converted $1.5 billion of its balance sheet into bitcoin in February 2021.

UPDATE (May 13, 10:50 UTC): Adds details about termination fee and Musk's pursuit of new funding in fourth and fifth bullet. Updates headline and share price.

UPDATE (May 13, 11:10 UTC): Adds further background on Twitter deal and Musk's support of crypto. Adds Dogecoin reaction.

UPDATE (May 13, 12:15 UTC): Updates headline and lead with Musk's latest tweet.

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