Elon Musk puts Twitter deal 'temporarily on hold'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday morning that he has put his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter "temporarily on hold." The reason, he indicated, is that he's seeking more "details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."

Musk provided no other details.

However, the announcement from his official account likely will trigger a free-for-all in the tech and financial worlds. Advertisers already have been skittish about continuing to spend on the platform ever since Musk indicated that one of the goals of his purchase is to cleanse Twitter of fake "bot" accounts.