Guwahati: Elon Musk said that his proposal to acquire Twitter is "temporarily on pause" as he attempts to determine the precise amount of spam and fraudulent accounts on the social media network, adding to the confusion around the proposed USD 44 billion deal.

Musk has been open about his desire to clean up Twitter's problem with "spam bots" that impersonate actual people, and he has questioned if the firm is underreporting them.

In a tweet, Musk linked to a Reuters story from May 2 about a quarterly report from Twitter that projected fraudulent or spam accounts accounted for less than 5% of the company's "monetizable daily active users" in the first quarter. " Twitter transaction currently on hold for details supporting computation that spam/fake accounts do fact constitute fewer than 5% of users," Musk stated, implying that he is wary of the low number of inauthentic accounts.

It was unclear if the problem would derail the accord. Musk subsequently stated on Twitter that he is "still dedicated to acquisition."
Twitter and Musk did not reply to demands for comment early Friday.

The issue of bogus Twitter accounts is not new.

Even Twitter expressed doubts about its bot account count in its quarterly report with the SEC, admitting that it may below.

In a note written to staff and acknowledged by Twitter, CEO Parag Agrawal stated that the business has been unable to meet growth and revenue targets despite investing "aggressively" to build its user base and income.

A check of Twitter filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that the estimate of spam-bot accounts and similar wording expressing reservations about it had been in Twitter's quarterly and annual reports for at least two years, well before Musk made his offer and would have been known to him and his advisors.

Twitter and Tesla stock swung significantly in opposing ways Friday, with Twitter down almost 6% and Tesla, which Musk had suggested using to help fund the Twitter transaction, up over 7% in pre-market trade.

The steep increase in the price of Tesla shares before the opening bell on Friday signalled growing scepticism about the acquisition of Twitter.

Musk has already sold more than $8 billion in Tesla stock to fund the acquisition. Initially, Musk agreed to borrow $12.5 billion and use Tesla stock as security to acquire Twitter. He would also borrow $13 billion from banks and put up $21 billion in Tesla shares.

Last week, Musk increased the stock position in his Twitter bid with guarantees of more than $7 billion from a varied collection of investors, including Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

According to the filing, the money from the new investors reduces the amount borrowed on the value of Tesla shares to $6.25 billion. The value of Tesla's stock stake might rise from $21 billion to $27.25 billion.