Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter acquisition, jury finds

A group of former Twitter investors have prevailed in a federal civil lawsuit against Elon Musk’s actions in the wake of the social platform’s $44 billion acquisition in 2022. A San Francisco jury found on Friday that tweets Musk made about fake accounts on the platform defrauded investors in the company. The jury sided with Musk on other charges in the case.

It’s not yet clear how much Musk will owe in damages as a result of the case, but, since Associated Press reports, could be in the billions of dollars. Jurors estimated that shareholders should receive « between about $3 and $8 per share per day. »

The class action, one of several filed against Musk in the months since the company’s takeover, cites Musk’s tweets about fake accounts on the platform. Faced with a plunging Tesla stock price in the days after announcing it would buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, the lawsuit says Musk made tweets and statements that were deliberately intended to drive down Twitter’s stock price in an effort to renegotiate or exit the deal.

The lawsuit cited a May 13, 2022 tweet from Musk that said the Twitter deal was « temporarily on hold » due to the number of fake accounts and bots on the platform, as well as one a few days later that suggested fake accounts could account for more than 20 percent of users. Twitter’s stock fell significantly after the May 13 tweet.

During the trial, Musk said the tweets were him « expressing his opinion » and claimed Twitter executives « lied » about the number of bots on the platform, according to KQED. Former Twitter shareholders, on the other hand, said they « sold shares at a discount amid Musk’s public hesitation. »

Musk faced several lawsuits during and after the company’s $44 billion acquisition. That includes other shareholder lawsuits related to his delay in disclosing his stake in the company, as well as one by former executives related to unpaid severance benefits (Musk later settled those claims). He also narrowly avoided a lawsuit over his attempts to back out of the deal.