Twitter deal on hold

ELON Musk announced Friday that hisTwitter deal is on hold until he receives more information about how many fake accounts there are on the social media platform.

In a follow-up tweet around two hours later, Musk added that he was“still committed to the acquisition”.

Twitter’s stock plummeted 18 percent in premarket trading following the initial announcement, but trimmed some losses after the second tweet.

Shares were down about 11 percent after markets opened. A spokesperson for the social media company did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Tesla CEO Musk announced last month that he intends to buyTwitter for US$44 billion and he has previously tweeted that one of his main priorities would be to remove “spam bots”from the platform.

Even before Friday’s announcement, the company’s market value had fallen to

US$9 billion beneath the offer price due to concerns about the deal. –