A US jury has dismissed investor claims against billionaire Elon Musk over a 2018 tweet about electric car company Tesla.
The Wall Street Journal reported that investors accused Musk of violating the federal securities law when he wrote in the tweet about the possibility of converting Tesla to private ownership in a deal worth $ 72 billion.
And last Monday, Musk tried to convince the court that the famous tweets he published in 2018 regarding his desire to remove Tesla from the stock exchange were not misleading or fraudulent, in contrast to the accusations of investors who say they lost millions of dollars because of it.
After nearly two hours of deliberations on Friday, the nine-person panel found that the investors who brought the case had failed to prove their allegations against Musk or the electric car company he runs, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper quoted Nicholas Porritt, an attorney for the investors, as saying he was disappointed with the decision and was considering the next steps.
And in 2018, Musk raised a surprise by announcing his intention to withdraw his group from the stock exchange when its share price reached $ 420.
“I wasn’t saying it was done, I was just saying I was looking into it, I was thinking about it,” Musk told the San Francisco court where the trial took place. In my opinion, the funding was secure.”
Testifying over three days, Musk said he was confident he had the funding to take Tesla private, and that he tweeted to inform shareholders, not mislead them.
After the electric car maker’s stock rose to $386.48, it fell on Aug. 16, 2018, to $335.45, according to figures provided to the jury by Judge Edward Schein.
And news reports revealed that Musk did not really have the money. Tesla remained listed on the stock exchange.
Investors sued, saying Musk’s tweets were incorrect and relying on them caused him to lose billions.
