Elon Musk’s waffling before eventually acquiring Twitter came back to bite him in the a**.
A California jury found Tesla’s chief liable for misleading Twitter shareholders as he sought to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.
The decision handed down by the jury on Friday in the class-action case Pampena v. Musk found Musk’s tweet that said the deal was “temporarily on hold” did harm and was misleading, leading to the company’s shares sliding almost 10%, and according to Deadline’s reporting, could cost Musk up to $2.6 billion in damages.
Musk’s initial reasoning for taking his time to finalize the Twitter acquisition was the prevalence of bots, spam, and fake accounts. Shareholders did not buy what Musk was selling and believed he said it to get Twitter to lower the price of its shares.
While they found him liable after 4 days of deliberation, the jury unanimously believed that Musk was not directly involved in the scheme to defraud investors.
Speaking with CNBC, Joseph Cotchett, who represented shareholders, said following the decision:
“This is a great example of what you cannot do to the average investor — people that have 401ks, kids, pension funds, teachers, firemen, nurses. That’s what this case was all about. This was not about Musk. It was about the whole operation.”
While Musk’s attorney, Quinn Emanuel, said, “We view today’s verdict, where the jury found both for and against the plaintiffs and found no fraud scheme, as a bump in the road. And we look forward to vindication on appeal.”
Social media had plenty to say about the recent developments in Musk’s life; you can see those reactions below.
