A jury in San Francisco has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors during his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022. The verdict, delivered after three days of deliberation, determined that Musk's tweets and comments in May 2022 intentionally drove down Twitter's stock price, though he was cleared of some fraud allegations.
The civil trial centered on a class-action lawsuit filed before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X. Jurors decided that two tweets, including one stating the deal was 'temporarily on hold,' constituted misleading statements. However, they found that a comment made on a podcast did not amount to fraud, and that Musk did not engage in a 'scheme' to deceive investors.
The exact damages Musk will pay to thousands of shareholders, including institutional investors, remain unclear but are expected to be substantial. The jury awarded between $3 and $8 per share per day, potentially amounting to billions of dollars. Musk's fortune is estimated at around $814 billion, largely tied to Tesla shares.
The trial highlighted Musk's claims about the number of bots on Twitter, which he argued was higher than the 5% disclosed in regulatory filings. He used this as a reason to attempt backing out of the purchase, leading to a legal battle in Delaware that ultimately forced him to honour the original deal.
