Twitter shares tank as Elon Musk put takeover bid on hold

Popular businessman, Elon Musk, has put his Twitter (TWTR) takeover bid on hold noting that will only resume when it is verified that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are fake.

Musk had pledged to get rid of fake accounts on the microblogging site when his $42 billion takeover deal materializes. However, in a SEC filing, Twitter estimated that the number of fake accounts on its platform was only less than 5%.

This development caused Twitter shares to sink by 17% to $37,2 during the pre-trading hours while Tesla shares went up by 5% to $769.27 in premarket trading.

The clause of the agreement states that if the Twitter deal does not materialize, Musk will have to pay $1 billion as a termination fee.

Musk’s statement made popular memecoin slump by 7%. It has, however, climbed from $0.0869 to $0.0904.

It is reported that the Tesla CEO is seeking new funding as he looks to abandon previous plans of taking a margin loan against Twitter stocks. And Binance is said to have supported him with $500 million.

Musk who is quite controversial over his interest in several crypto projects began his takeover bid when he acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter.

He then began to push for a full takeover, stating that he wants to make Twitter a platform where free speech is embraced.

Musk, however, notes that he is still committed to acquisition.