Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter deal at risk: report

San Francisco:

Twitter shares fell late Thursday after a Washington Post report that Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant is in jeopardy.

The world’s richest man has previously expressed his concerns and even hinted that he could walk away from the deal due to concerns about what he believes is an abundance of fake accounts.

according to MailHowever, Musk was unable to share the percentage of non-original Twitter accounts, despite being given access to the internal data.

While Musk has already made comments that put his commitment to the deal in doubt, the latest report quoted an anonymous source as saying his team is preparing for a “change in direction.”

Twitter shares, which were already trading below the price offered by Musk, sank about four percent in the news in after-market trading.

“It’s clear that the TV series on Twitter is coming to some sort of end over the coming months as Musk makes a decision to stay (at a lower price) or leave,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors.

“Obviously, the Twitter deal caused chaos in Twitter.”

Ives expects Musk to reveal details of his concerns about his fake account in the coming weeks.

During the Qatar Economic Forum last month, Musk said his Twitter purchase remained pending due to “very important” questions about the number of fake users on the social network.

“So we are still waiting for a decision on this matter and this is very important,” the head of Tesla and SpaceX exploration said via a video link to the rally.

Twitter executives have confirmed that less than five percent of the accounts are fake, with Musk saying he thinks the number is much higher.

Musk said there are also questions about Twitter’s debt.

Ives said the chances of Musk buying Twitter as originally negotiated are slim.

Wedbush set the chance of the deal happening at 60 percent lower, leaving open the possibility that Musk would try to get away with just paying the $1 billion breakup fee needed.

(This story has not been edited by the NDTV crew and is automatically generated from a shared feed.)