Elon Musk warns Twitter deal stuck without fake account proof

Elon Musk has said his $44bn deal to buy Twitter may be in jeopardy due to a disagreement over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform.

Mr Musk tweeted that the deal "cannot move forward" unless Twitter backs up its claims that less than 5% of accounts are fake or spam accounts.

Analysts have speculated that Mr Musk may be looking for ways to renegotiate the price of the deal or walk away.

On Monday Mr Musk said he could seek a lower price for Twitter.

Mr Musk agreed the $44bn (£34.5bn) deal to buy Twitter with its board in April, but on Monday Mr Musk said the deal was "on hold" while he sought details about fake accounts.

On Tuesday, Mr Musk tweeted that his offer for the firm was based on Twitter's disclosures to regulators about fake accounts "being accurate".

Mr Musk said Mr Agrawal had "publicly refused to show proof" that fewer than 5% of its accounts were fake, and said the deal "cannot move forward" until Mr Agrawal does show proof.

Mr Musk's tweet then appeared to be deleted.

On Monday, Mr Musk responded to Twitter boss Parag Agrawal's defence of the the firm's spam accounts with a poo emoji, later repeating his claim that Twitter was underestimating the figure.

Elon Musk has doubled down on his position that his deal to buy the social network is on ice while the actual amount of spambots and accounts operating on it is investigated.

Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal has hit back, and tempers are flaring.

When the richest man in the world replies to one of your tweets with just one symbol, the poo emoji, well, I suppose at least you know you've got his attention.

I long ago gave up trying to read the mind of Elon Musk but let's indulge in a moment of speculation.

He's making a big deal about fake accounts. Is it a convenient peg on which to hang a renegotiation? His initial $44bn offer for the firm was considerably higher than its current stock suggests.

He moved swiftly and aggressively, perhaps even impulsively.

To fund it, he's already had to sell a chunk of shares in one of his other companies, the electric car firm Tesla, and that in turn made a dent in the value of that company as it made other investors nervous.

If either party in the Twitter deal walks away now, there's a $1bn termination fee.

That may sound like small change to a multi-billionaire - although Mr Musk maintains he is asset-rich rather than cash-rich - but it perhaps gives him leverage to successfully shave a few billion off the offer price, because $1bn is not small change to Twitter and its shareholders.

However, Mr Musk might be right to question Twitter's worth.

If it really isn't bloated with spam, then perhaps it has less potential to be made great again, a phrase that may sound familiar given that he has already indicated that he would like to re-instate former US President Donald Trump.

Mr Trump, by the way, has so far declined the invitation.