TWITTER HAS RELEASED a statement saying it intends to follow through on its sale to Elon Musk. 

The deal appeared to be in jeopardy in recent days after Musk said the deal would not go ahead unless he was assurances that fewer than five percent of accounts on the platform were fake.

In a statement today, released to Bloomberg, a spokesperson for Twitter said: “We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement.”

Musk said his offer had been based on Twitter’s filings with US regulators being “accurate” and has publicly rowed with executives on the platform over the issue.

The spam accounts figure has been included in Twitter’s quarterly figures for several years, and the company says it carries out an “internal review of a sample of accounts”, acknowledging that while it applies “significant judgment”, it is an estimation.

Some analysts have suggested that Musk may be looking for ways to try to renegotiate the price of the deal or find a way to walk away from it – Twitter’s share price has slumped in recent days and remains well below the 54.20 dollars Musk has agreed to pay per share for the company.

The billionaire told a conference in Miami earlier this week that renegotiating a deal at a lower price was “not out of the question”.

The takeover deal includes a one billion dollar “breakup fee” which either side would be liable for if they pull out of the transaction.

Musk’s interest in the number of spam accounts on Twitter is believed to be linked to his proposed plans to further monetise the platform’s userbase.

He has previously hinted at plans around boosting advertising and offering more subscriptions to users, and hinted that some government and business accounts could face a “slight cost” in order to use the platform.

With reporting by PA