Elon Musk placed the Twitter acquisition on hold.

Elon Musk has put his $44 billion (£35 billion) proposal to buy Twitter on hold, citing concerns over the amount of bogus or spam accounts on the platform.

He stated that he was awaiting facts “to support [the] calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed comprise less than 5% of users.”

Mr. Musk has been outspoken about the need to eliminate spam accounts.

Analysts believed that he may be attempting to renegotiate the price or perhaps walk away from the acquisition.

Twitter shares plunged as much as 25% in pre-market trade after Mr Musk’s remark.

Later, he stated that he remains “dedicated to acquisition.”

If either Twitter or Mr Musk decides to leave, they must pay the other side a $1 billion termination fee.

Fake accounts accounted for less than 5% of Twitter’s daily active users in the first three months of this year, according to a report released more than two weeks ago.

However, the corporation admitted that it “used significant judgment” in calculating the number of spam accounts, thus “our estimation of fraudulent or spam accounts may not precisely represent the real number of such accounts.”

“It’s possible that the number of fake or spam accounts is bigger than we thought. We’re always looking for ways to increase our capacity to estimate the total number of spam accounts “it said.

Twitter has long had a problem with automated, phoney accounts posting content incessantly.

Mr Musk has called for “fighting the spam bots” on Twitter, as well as a slew of other improvements, including the reinstatement of certain banned accounts, including former US President Donald Trump’s.

Mr Musk’s remark, according to Dan Ives, a tech analyst at investment company Wedbush Securities, will “turn this Twitter circus act into a Friday the 13th horror show.”

He predicted that Wall Street would now “see this deal as

1) Likely breaking apart,

2) Musk negotiating a lower deal price, or

3) Musk simply walking away with a $1 billion break-up fee.”