Rare Legal Defeat for Elon Musk: US Jury Finds Tech Tycoon Misled Twitter Shareholders During $44bn Acquisition
In a landmark ruling that has sent shockwaves through the tech and financial sectors, a federal jury in California has found Elon Musk liable for misleading Twitter shareholders.
The verdict, delivered on Friday in a San Francisco federal court, concludes that the world’s richest man intentionally made false statements that drove down the company’s share price during his high-profile $44 billion acquisition in 2022.
The class action lawsuit, filed by investor Giuseppe Pampena, focused on two specific tweets posted by the Tesla and SpaceX CEO in May 2022.
The jury agreed that Musk violated securities rules by claiming the deal was "temporarily on hold" pending a review of fake "bot" accounts.
Plaintiffs argued this was a calculated scheme to gain leverage, renegotiate the purchase price, or exit the deal entirely as Tesla's stock price—which Musk used to finance the purchase—was plummeting.
“The judgment marks a rare legal defeat for Musk, often dubbed ‘Teflon Elon’ for his ability to emerge unscathed from lawsuits he is expected to lose,” legal analysts noted.
Jurors estimated the damages at approximately $2.6 billion.
This marks a significant shift from 2023, when a similar jury cleared Musk of charges related to his 2018 "funding secured" tweets regarding Tesla.
Following the announcement, Musk’s legal team immediately informed AFP of their intent to appeal, characterizing the decision as a temporary "setback."
Musk, whose net worth was recently estimated by Forbes at $839 billion, successfully merged the platform (now known as X) with his AI startup xAI and SpaceX earlier this year.
Despite his near-constant presence on the platform, the billionaire has yet to issue a direct public reaction to the multi-billion dollar verdict.
#ElonMusk #TwitterDeal #X #SecuritiesLaw #Tesla #SpaceX #BusinessNews #TechNews #ElonMuskVerdict
Post a Comment