Washington [US], May 13 (HornbillTV/ANI): Twitter shares tumbled around 20 per cent in the pre-market trading on Friday after billionaire Elon Musk declared that the $44 billion takeover bid of the micro-blogging site is on hold.

Musk tweeted that the takeover of Twitter Inc is temporarily on hold due to the calculation of fake accounts in it.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 per cent of users,” Musk tweeted tagging a media report.

Musk’s announcement came before the opening of trading in the American stock exchanges.

In the pre-market trading, Twitter Inc share price crashed to USD 37.10, which is 17.7 per cent lower than its previous day’s close.

Musk said earlier this week that Twitter’s decision to ban former US President Donald Trump was a mistake and he would reverse it if his acquisition of the social media company is successful.

Twitter recently agreed to acquisition by Musk in a deal worth USD 44 billion, although it is still subject to shareholder approval.