LONDON (Reuters), – Elon Musk has announced Friday that he will be putting his $44-billion contract for the United Kingdom. Twitter Inc (NYSE:) Temporarily on Hold, sending 20% of the shares of the social media company to the Frankfurt stock exchange and premarket trading.

Here are the reactions of analysts to this announcement.

DANIEL MORGAN PORTFOLIO MANGER, SYNOVUS TRUTH, ATLANTA

“I would like to know if it’s not just about bot accounts and fake accounts. It’s something that has come up on Twitter’s quarterly calls. It’s a mystery to me why this suddenly became a huge issue and how he uses it to delay his $44Billion acquisition.

    “Is there some other issue out there with regards to financing? He had many investors, including Larry Ellison from Oracle (NYSE:), who would be willing to lend their support for the acquisition.

    “Maybe he thinks he can get it at a lower price. Stocks are falling. This stock is falling, despite being known for years.

ART HOGAN CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT NATIONALSECURITIES NEW YORK. He revealed that a family member owned Tesla (NASDAQ) shares.

    “It’s a conundrum because when you step back and look at the stock action of Twitter since it received the initial offer from Musk, it never priced in more than a 30-40% chance of this actually getting completed.”

    “There’s been a lot of contemplation that it might not come to bear here. Musk’s Tweets stir up confusion, and are causing more. We are witnessing the stock reactions we see today because of this. We don’t even understand what temporary on hold actually means.

    “Saying it’s temporarily on hold is not standard operating procedure when you’ve made a tender offer for a company. It is both confusing and nonsensical. It doesn’t work.”

    “Elon Musk, who has secured financing for the tender offer he’s already made, will likely be legally bound to either complete this or pay the breakup fee, which is no small thing.”

    “It shouldn’t affect Tesla shareholders. He has had to pledge less Tesla shares than he did at the time of his initial offering, and he still needs them as collateral. Although Tesla’s impact has decreased over the years, there is still some. Tesla investors may look at the deal and say, “Okay, but he won’t be forced to sell this deal.”

STEPHANE EKOLO GLOBAL EQUITY STRATEGIST TRADITION LONDON, UK

“I believe the Twitter story should remain a Twitter Story without any impact on the wider Market.” After all, this is just an M&A issue”

NEIL WILSON, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST, MARKETS.COM, LONDON, UK

“Just always felt like deal was suspect and now get sense it won’t happen and maybe was never going to.”

“I think Hindenburg (short-seller), hit the nail right on the head. I can negotiate a lower price or leave with lots of Tesla.

DANNI HEWSON ANALYST AJ BELL HUDDERSFIELD UK

Many investors believed that Musk’s offer of decent shares and a good deal was a way to provide some safety in a market where tech shares are dropping. Twitter knows that it will need to heal if the deal does not happen.

“Investors aren’t sure what Elon Musk is planning next. Musk is a complete maverick. He can be either amazing or completely useless, depending on how you view him.

SUSANNAH STREETER and ANALYST, HARGREAVES LANSDOWN BRISTOL UK

“Musk’s Twitter takeover was always destined to be a bumpy ride, and now it risks hitting the skids over the number of fake accounts on the platform.

“Moreover, there will be concerns about whether or not fake accounts were behind the delay. This is because his motivation was to promote free speech and less wealth creation.

“The price of $44 Billion is a huge amount, so it might be a tactic to backtrack on how much he’s willing to pay for the platform.”

EMMANUEL CAU is the HEAD OF EQUITY STATEGY, BARCLAYS (LONDON), UK

“It adds some uncertainty to the tech sector but this is extremely company specific. I don’t foresee any impact on European stocks.

It keeps pressure on tech sector, however it is my impression that there’s very little read-across effect to be expected. However, this doesn’t help to increase optimism in the sector.

MICHAEL HEWSON CHIEF MARKETS ANALYST CMC MARKETS LONDON

Markets are responding as if Elon Musk is pulling out of the deal. If so, Twitter shares would have fallen 20%. Perhaps Elon Musk (himself) is setting the stage for pulling out.

But the timing of this deal is curious considering all the effort he had put in to obtain financing. SpaceX shares and Tesla shareholders may have indicated that they would like him to concentrate on Tesla’s primary concerns. Musk’s playbook is a great way to keep shareholders in the loop.

NEIL CAMPLING HEAD OF TMT Research, MIRABAUD LONDON

“Laughable. “Laughable. This is absurd.

“He has never had the full funding – we know that from his constant attempts to get financial support – but he also held all the cards. This is all down to the Twitter board, who have been held captive and are solely responsible. No other buyer will emerge – if he decides he is still interested he can ‘name his price’… and it won’t be higher!

This should have been obvious to them (the board). There was a specific performance clause in the merger agreement (section 9.9), which gave Twitter the right to ‘consummate the closing (of the deal)’ but only if he had the financing… which he doesn’t.”