Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter takeover, US jury finds

Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter takeover, US jury finds

A U.S. jury determined that Elon Musk misled investors by intentionally lowering the company’s stock value in the months before his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X.

Despite this, Musk, who is also the wealthiest individual globally, was exonerated on certain fraud charges in the San Francisco-based civil trial. The lawsuit focused on Musk’s actions prior to acquiring Twitter, later rebranded as X.

Jurors were tasked with evaluating whether two tweets and podcast comments from May 2022 constituted intentional deception by Musk, prompting shareholders to sell their holdings. The exact compensation Musk must pay to numerous shareholders remains uncertain, though estimates suggest it could reach billions.

“He trashed the company. Trashed the executives. And tanked the stock,” the shareholders’ lawyer, Mark Molumphy, said during his closing argument on Tuesday.

Musk’s net worth, currently valued at approximately $814 billion, is largely tied to his Tesla stock. The core of the case revolved around Musk’s assertion that Twitter had underestimated the number of bot accounts on its platform.

Mr Musk used what he called Twitter’s misrepresentation of the number of fake accounts on its service as a reason to retreat from the purchase. After he tried to back out, Twitter took legal action to force him to honour his original deal. Musk eventually agreed to pay what he had originally promised and completed the acquisition in October 2022.

Separately, Musk is engaged in discussions to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit, which accuses him of delaying the disclosure of