- Twitter dropped 4% in Friday's premarket after the Washington Post reported Elon Musk's buyout deal is "in serious jeopardy."
- The Post said Musk's team is dissatisfied about the information Twitter has provided about spam or fake accounts.
- The deal is coming under increasing doubt, although Musk may find it hard legally to go back on his word.
Twitter stock dropped 4% in pre-market trading on Friday after the Washington Post reported Elon Musk's $44 billion deal to buy the social media company is "in serious jeopardy."
The Post said Musk's team has pulled back from certain discussions about the purchase and that his team has decided it is unable to verify Twitter's data on how many spam accounts are present on the platform.
The company's shares had fallen 4.07% to $37.21 as of 5.15 a.m. ET in pre-market trading. Normal US trading hours begin at 9.30 a.m.
Musk's deal to buy Twitter and take it private at a price of $54.20 a share, which was announced in April, has been thrown into doubt as the Tesla CEO has questioned the social media platform's data on spam or bot users.
The billionaire — Musk is the world's richest person — put the deal "temporarily on hold" in May, saying he wanted more details to verify Twitter's claim that spam or fake accounts amount to less than 5% of users.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Musk's team has raised concerns about the huge amount of data Twitter has provided. The Post cited a person familiar with the matter who said Musk's team do not think they have enough information to judge Twitter's business prospects.
However, Musk has agreed to buy Twitter and will find it legally tricky to go back on his word unless a major problem comes to light.
A spokesperson for Twitter said they have no further comment beyond one released in June: "Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement. We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms."
Some analysts have suggested Musk could be looking for a way out of the deal given the huge slide in tech stocks over the last few months. Twitter's market cap is now around $30 billion, well below the price of the deal.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside of usual office hours.
