Elon Musk Says His $44 Billion Twitter Deal Is On Hold – WSJ

Elon Musk said his planned acquisition of Twitter Inc. TWTR -9.67%¼ was temporarily on hold because of concerns about fake accounts, a surprise twist that jolted investors and raised questions about his willingness to go through with the $44 billion transaction.

Mr. Musk s grenade came in a tweet posted at 5:44 a.m. Eastern Time that was followed just over two hours later by another saying he was still committed to acquisition. Lawyers close to Mr. Musk urged him to send that follow-up tweet, according to people familiar with the matter.

The initial announcement was unorthodox not just in its timing and format, but because Mr. Musk referenced a recent Twitter disclosure about fake and spam accounts that it has made consistently for years and because Mr. Musk has already signed an agreement for the purchase and waived detailed due diligence on the deal.

The sudden shake-up fueled questions about whether Mr. Musk is committed to a deal that was struck amid a sharp decline in technology stocks that has made Twitter less valuable on paper than it was a month ago when he made his offer of $54.20 a share. Twitter shares, which were already trading well below that level, closed down 9.7% in afternoon trading at $40.70.

via www.wsj.com

This is what happens when you get ahead of your lawyers.