Elon Musk says Twitter deal on hold pending details on fake accounts; shares plunge 19%

Elon Musk, during an event at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019.

Bloomberg /Getty

Elon Musk announced Friday that the Twitter deal is on hold until he receives more information about how many fake accounts there are on the platform.

Twitter’s stock plummeted 19% following the announcement.

A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Musk announced last month that he intends to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

Even before Friday’s announcement, the company’s market cap had fallen to $9 billion beneath the offer price due to concerns about the deal.

This is a breaking news story, please check back later for more.

Source

World

One year after DeepSeek, Chinese AI firms from Alibaba to Moonshot race to release new models

January 28, 2026

BEIJING — Chinese companies are accelerating the rollout of new artificial intelligence models as competition with U.S.-based rivals OpenAI, Anthropic and Google intensifies. Just over a year ago, China-made DeepSeek rocked global markets with the release of an AI chatbot that undercut OpenAI’s ChatGPT on usage fees and production costs, raising questions about the efficacy […]

World

Amazon inadvertently announces cloud unit layoffs in email to employees

January 28, 2026

Amazon logo on brick office building facade with windows, San Francisco, California, Aug. 29, 2025. Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images Amazon on Tuesday sent a notice out to cloud staffers in an apparent error acknowledging “organizational changes” at the company. The e-commerce giant is expected to announce widespread layoffs across […]

World

Asia markets open mostly higher after S&P 500 hits record, South Korea pushes fresh highs

January 28, 2026

Melbourne, Australia Kieran Stone | Moment | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly higher on Wednesday, tracking gains on Wall Street after the S&P 500 closed at a record high. The broad market index gained 0.41% to finish at 6,978.60, supported by gains in Apple and Microsoft. Asian markets mostly extended Tuesday’s gains, with Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbing […]