Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has failed to overturn a jury verdict that found he deceived investors during the acquisition of Twitter. The court upheld the ruling that Musk made false and misleading statements after the acquisition agreement.
On July 6, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California rejected Musk's request to nullify the jury's verdict. The court also denied a request to revoke the class-action status of the investor lawsuit.
This lawsuit stems from a tweet Musk posted after signing a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter in 2022. He stated on May 13 of that year that he would put the acquisition on hold until he could verify the percentage of fake and spam accounts on the platform. Following this tweet, Twitter's stock price dropped 18% over two days.
Judge Breyer acknowledged the falsehood of Musk's May 13 tweet, noting that he did not actually instruct anyone to halt the transaction. He stated, “Even if one has a change of heart or feels regret about a deal, that anxiety does not justify lying to the investing public.”
However, the court limited Musk's liability. It did not hold him accountable for a subsequent tweet on May 17, which suggested that the acquisition was difficult, as there was no confirmed market reaction to that statement.
Musk's legal team argued that the jury's inclusion of a specific damage amount of $4.20 in their verdict, highlighted in blue, was a mocking gesture. The court dismissed this claim, stating that the jury deliberated for four days and ruled in Musk's favor on some issues.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs estimate that Musk could face damages of up to $2.6 billion as a result of this case. Additionally, Musk is facing another investor lawsuit over allegations that he delayed disclosing his acquisition of Twitter shares to buy them at a lower price.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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