People Don’t Believe my Twitter Messages-Musk in Court
2023.01.21 03:00
People Don’t Believe my Twitter Messages-Musk in Court
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – Tesla’s Elon Musk (NASDAQ) In his defense of himself in a fraud trial over his 2018 tweet that he had funding to take the electric carmaker private, Inc.’s chief executive testified on Friday that investors do not always respond to his tweets in the manner he expects.
Questions about how Musk used Twitter, the social media platform he bought in October, started Musk’s testimony. Although he said that his tweets did not always have the desired effect on Tesla stock, he described it as the most democratic method of communication.
Musk told the jury in San Francisco federal court, “Just because I tweet something does not mean people will believe it or act accordingly.”
Before the court adjourned until Monday, Musk testified for less than 30 minutes, and he was not questioned about his 2018 tweet that he was considering taking Tesla private and that he had “funding secured.”
He is expected to explain why he has maintained that he has the backing of Saudi investors to take Tesla private, despite the fact that this never happened, and whether or not he knowingly made a statement in his tweet that is materially misleading.
The plaintiffs have already overcome significant legal obstacles in this unusual securities class action case, as U.S. Judge Edward Chen ruled last year that Musk’s funding post was dishonest and careless.
Musk was accused of lying by shareholders when he sent the tweet, which cost investors millions of dollars.
In contrast to his occasionally combative testimony in previous trials, Musk spoke softly and occasionally bemused while wearing a dark suit and a white button-down shirt.
Short-seller bets that the stock would fall were among the difficulties Musk described when he tweeted “funding secured” around the same time.
He referred to short-sellers as “a bunch of sharks on Wall Street wanted Tesla to die, very badly.” Short-sellers make money when a stock falls in price.
He claimed that short sellers fabricate stories and advocated for the practice’s prohibition.
At $133.42, Tesla shares ended about 5% higher.
After Musk sent the tweet, which sparked volatile swings in Tesla’s stock, investor Timothy Fries told the jury earlier on Friday that he lost $5,000 purchasing Tesla stock.
“There had been some vetting, some critical review of those funding sources,” Fries stated, referring to the phrase “funding secured.”
In his opening statement Wednesday, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro told the jury that Musk believed he had Saudi backers’ financing and was working to close the deal. Spiro stated that Musk attempted to shield the “everyday shareholder” from media leaks by sending the tweet, which contained “technical inaccuracies.”
The jury was informed by Guhan Subramanian, a professor at Harvard Law School, that Musk’s behavior in 2018 was “unprecedented” and “incoherent” when it came to structuring a corporate deal because he went public with his intention without conducting adequate financial or legal analysis.
A jury of six men and three women will decide if Tesla’s share price was artificially inflated by playing up the status of the deal’s funding and, if so, how much.
Spiro said that the defendants, who include current and former directors of Tesla, had “pure” reasons for reacting to Musk’s plan.
