Twitter Stock Plunges as Elon Musk Tweets About Acquisition

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A tweet from Tesla TSLA +5.71% CEO Elon Musk sent Twitter TWTR –9.67% shares sharply lower. Another sent the stock in the other direction.

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The Tesla (ticker: TSLA) CEO said Friday his deal to buy Twitter (TWTR) was “temporarily on hold” pending a calculation related to the number of fake accounts on Twitter.

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Hours later, Musk tweeted again saying “Still committed to acquisition.”

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Twitter stock was down more than 18% in premarket trading. Following the second tweet, the shares were off 9.2% at $40.96 in late morning trading.

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That is close to the level Twitter traded at before Musk’s initial 9%-plus stake in Twitter was disclosed.

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Twitter, in its first-quarter financial filing, said that those type of accounts represented less than 5% of what it calls its mDAU, or monetizable daily active usage.

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