Elon Musk tweeted early Friday morning to say that his proposed $44 billion acquisition of Twitter is "temporarily on hold."
Musk included a ten-day old Reuters article in his tweet, which reported that Twitter had said in a regulatory filing that fake or spam accounts represented less than 5% of its user base.
"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," Musk tweeted.
A little over two hours later Musk tweeted again saying: "Still committed to acquisition."
It's not clear from Musk's initial tweet what part of the report concerns him or why it would result in him putting the deal on hold. Musk recently secured an extra $7 billion in backing for the deal.
Musk has stated publicly that tackling spam bots on Twitter would be one of his priorities if he successfully acquires the company.
Musk's tweet sent Twitter stock tumbling as much as 25% in premarket trading.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note sent to Insider: "Many will view this as Musk using this Twitter filing/spam accounts as a way to get out of this deal in a vastly changing market."
Shares in Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla have fallen around 25% since Musk announced his plans to buy Twitter. Tesla stock rose more than 5% after Musk announced the deal was on hold.
Ives said the fact Musk revealed he was putting the deal on hold with a tweet rather than a regulatory filing was "troubling" and had the effect of turning the Twitter deal into a "circus show."
Twitter did not immediately respond to the news when contacted by Insider.
This is a developing story...
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