Elon Musk sells nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla stock for fear of having to buy Twitter
The conflict is deadlocked between Twitter and Elon Musk. As a reminder, the billionaire announced on July 9 that he was definitively refusing to complete his $44 billion takeover of the social network, which he had committed to 3 months earlier. A legal battle has since begun between the two parties after Twitter initially filed a complaint to force the businessman to honor his commitment. The latter did the same on July 29 in the same court specializing in commercial law, the Delaware Court of Chancery.
The trial takes place on October 17, and Elon Musk is worried about Tesla. On his Twitter account, he stated that he wanted it ” Avoid a fire sale of Tesla stock », if it is forced to buy Twitter, with the risk that some of its financial partners will not follow it to the end. As a result, the businessman sold nearly $7 billion worth of shares in automaker Tesla, according to a document filed with the SEC and published on the website on Tuesday. According to the document, this roughly corresponds to 7.9 million shares Tesla sold between August 5th and 9th. In April he sold shares in his car company worth around $8.5 billion in preparation for the takeover of the social network.
If the lawsuit ends in his favor, Elon Musk will buy Tesla stock again, he said, quoted by The Wall Street Journal. He also mentioned the idea of creating your own social network. A project he had indicated before taking over Twitter that he was “seriously thinking about it”.
Conflict over number of fake accounts
Elon Musk on Saturday called on the head of Twitter to publicly discuss and prove the proportion of fake accounts on the social network. This is in fact the point of contention between the two parties that the billionaire has accused the social network ” fraud “by voluntarily increasing the number of monetizable accounts on its platform. And it is this argument that the Tesla boss has put forward to withdraw his purchase offer and start a legal battle. For its part, Twitter responded that the businessman rushed the negotiations and that the agreement never mentioned the fake accounts. The lawyers of the social network denounce you “Trying to get out of a deal Musk hasn’t found attractive since the stock market crashed”.
(With AFP)
