When Elon Musk announced his $44 billion takeover bid to Twitter, it caused celebrations and meltdowns in equal measure.

Conservatives and libertarians, who have been the recipients of step-motherly treatment on Twitter owing to its overwhelming liberal bias, hoped Musk would liberate the platform into a haven for free speech.

Liberals feared losing control over a primary tool of communication and manipulation. Hence, Twitter employees staged walkouts. MSNBC said that Musk’s takeover would have 'massive, life and globe-altering consequences'. The New York Times and the Washington Post scurrilously attacked Musk.

There were a few commentators of perspicacity who urged cautious hope over blind optimism.

Some financial experts said that the price tag of $44bn was much more than Twitter's actual worth.

The fact remains that despite its impact, Twitter has struggled to generate revenue like Facebook or TikTok. This is because Twitter hasn’t been able to seamlessly embed adverts and other money-generating tools into its app.

Twitter was founded in March 2006 but became profitable only towards the end of 2017. The road has continued to be bumpy despite the profit. Twitter lost $221 million in 2021. Twitter also revealed last month that it had suffered a first-quarter loss and that it has ‘accidentally overstated’ its number of users since 2019.

This is why investors kept their distance from Twitter’s stock. Prior to Musk's hostile takeover bid, Twitter's stock was worth 12 % less than what it was priced when the firm went public around eight years back.

Last month, the news of Musk becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder, owning a 9.2% or $3 billion, triggered a rise of more than 27% in the company's stock price.

Just when things had settled down, there was another twist to the tale.

A few days back, Musk caused another frenzy across social media platforms and in financial markets when he announced that his takeover bid was “temporarily on hold”. He cited numerous fake accounts on social media sites as the reason.

Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022