Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that his US$44-billion cash deal for Twitter Inc is “temporarily on hold” while he waits for the social media company to provide data on the proportion of its fake accounts.

Twitter shares initially fell more than 20 percent in premarket trading, but after Tesla CEO Musk sent a second tweet saying he remained committed to the deal they regained some ground. The stock was off 12 percent in heavy volume ahead of the market open as investors fretted over the takeover.

Musk, the world's richest person, decided to...