Musk puts $44 billion Twitter deal on hold

Musk puts $44 billion Twitter deal on hold

Elon Musk on Friday put his $44-billion deal for Twitter Inc temporarily on hold, citing pending details in support of calculation that spam and fake accounts indeed represent less than 5 percent of users.

Shares of the social media company fell 17.7 percent to $37.10 in premarket trading, their lowest level since Musk disclosed his stake in the company in early April and subsequently made a “best and final” offer to take it private for $54.20 per share.

The implied probability of the deal closing at the agreed price fell below 50 percent for the first time on Tuesday, when Twitter shares dropped below $46.75.