Twitter shares slump after Elon Musk says takeover on hold

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a statement announcing his deal to buy Twitter last month that he wants to defeat spam bots, authenticate all humans and make its algorithms open source.

Twitter Inc. shares tumbled after Elon Musk tweeted that his $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc. is “temporarily on hold” over a filing stating fake accounts contribute less than 5% of its users.

Twitter slumped 20% pre-market after Elon Musk’s tweet, and Tesla shares rose roughly 5%. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

Twitter slumped 20% pre-market after Musk’s tweet, and Tesla shares rose roughly 5%.

Twitter said in a previous filing “that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our monthly daily active users during the quarter.”

Musk said in a statement announcing his deal to buy Twitter last month that he wants to defeat spam bots, authenticate all humans and make its algorithms open source.