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A federal jury in California has ruled that Tech billionaire and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, misled Twitter shareholders in actions that influenced the company’s share price ahead of his $44 billion acquisition.
The decision, delivered in a class action case, could see Musk face damages of up to $2.6 billion, based on the jury’s assessment.
The lawsuit was filed by Giuseppe Pampena on behalf of investors who sold their shares between May and October 2022, arguing that Musk’s public statements contributed to a drop in Twitter’s stock value.
Jurors found that Musk breached securities regulations by making statements that had the effect of artificially lowering the company’s share price, which in turn affected investors who sold during that period.
The case centred on claims that Musk attempted to gain leverage in the deal by casting doubt on the platform’s reported number of fake or bot accounts, including a post indicating the acquisition was temporarily on hold pending verification.
Although Musk initially sought to withdraw from the deal in 2022, he later completed the acquisition after legal pressure from the company.
He has since rebranded Twitter as X and integrated it with ventures including his artificial intelligence firm xAI and aerospace company SpaceX.
