Elon Musk sold off $6.9 billion worth of Tesla stock ahead of the Twitter court case

The more I hear about the “court of chancery” in Delaware, it sounds like Elon Musk is about to get his broke ass handed to him. To summarize, Elon Musk thought it would be super-cool to own Twitter so he made a very high bid on the company to purchase it as-is, with zero due diligence. Twitter agreed to the sale and then Musk spent months trying to back out of the sale. Now Twitter is taking him to court… the court of chancery. The trial is set for October and the chances are very good that Musk will be given a choice: he will be forced to honor his signed contract to purchase Twitter, or he will have to pay Twitter and Twitter shareholders billions for wasting their time. Musk apparently knows it’s going to be bad. He’s already selling off billions of Tesla stock.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold 7.9 million shares of Tesla in recent days, raising $6.9 billion with the sales. The sales from Friday through Tuesday were disclosed in a series of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday night. They mark the first sale of Tesla shares by Musk since April, when he sold 9.6 million shares, raising $8.5 billion at that time.

Those April sales came soon after Musk had reached a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. But a month ago he announced that he does not plan to go through with that deal, arguing that Twitter management did not disclose material information about how many user accounts were bots and spam accounts rather than accounts run by actual people. Twitter (TWTR) quickly sued to force Musk to go ahead with the deal on the terms reached in April.

Musk’s filings did not disclose the reason for the stock sales. But after someone on Twitter asked him if he was done selling Tesla shares, he responded “Yes” and then pointed to the possibility of being forced to buy Twitter as the reason for this latest sale.

“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” he said in his tweet. But at the time he sold the Tesla (TSLA) shares in April, he tweeted “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”

[From CNN]

Gizmodo pointed out that Musk only offloaded billions in Tesla stock after Tesla’s stock price recovered from a “brutal downturn” several months ago. Gizmodo also points out that Twitter has all of their legal ducks in a row, and their most recent filing to the court of chancery effectively “obliterated” Musk’s broke-ass excuses for why he pulled out of the deal. It sounds like Musk knows he’s about to get reamed in the court of chancery. Unless something else is going on and Musk just needs billions to start some new grift or Ponzi scheme.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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16 Responses to “Elon Musk sold off $6.9 billion worth of Tesla stock ahead of the Twitter court case”

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  1. Seraphina says:

    He just rubs me the wrong way every time I read about him. Something about this man is just off. And he looks like he should have the role of The Penguin in a a Batman movie.

  2. Noki says:

    What does Jack Dorsey have to say, he seems very quiet.

  3. Lolo86lf says:

    What was he thinking when he decided to bid to buy twitter? I believe political reasons were behind his decision at least in part. Donald Trump was secretly elated that Musk was going to reinstate his account LOL. It is safe to assume that Musk must be regretting ever bidding. By the way, I can’t stand the sight of Musk.

    • Flowerlake says:

      I think he likes to troll, but he could have accomplished that by just having talks with Twitter and alluding to it, then saying: “I don’t want you Twitter losers”.

      He went too far and it doesn’t make him look like a competent business man, but just…a Twitter troll.

  4. Chic says:

    Couldn’t have happened to a better person..FAFO

  5. Rapunzel says:

    Bankrupt his ass, Twitter. He’s not as rich as he seems, I’ll bet.

    • Both Sides Now says:

      Yes @ Rapunzel!! May he lose every dollar he has at hand to create a vacuum that he will never dig himself out of. He should be held financially accountable. Musk was plating games and he lost.

  6. detritus says:

    He’s manipulating stock prices with his BS. Not sure what the SEC actually does, but this is a prime example of a time to step in.

    Also, I hope Musk gets obliterated in court, please and thank you.

  7. GreenBunny says:

    What happens if they force him to buy it and he can’t afford to? Basically, is there still a possibility he can own Twitter? I worry about if Trump will still be able to get his Twitter account back.

  8. TheOriginalMia says:

    He’s still trying to say Twitter deceived him about the number of bots on the site. But that won’t work either. Twitter will win and he’ll be forced to pay $1B for backing out of the deal.

  9. Ann says:

    I think Tesla is the America Online of electric cars. In a few years, people will be selling them in droves.

    • AmB says:

      Hey, don’t knock AOL. They provided those nice tins and discs for my craft projects for years. 💿

  10. Kris says:

    A ton of retail investors bought stock this week because of the investor meeting/split announcement. So he made them pay by taking advantage of the stock going up right after the meeting. People bought high and then he tanked the stock for three days.

  11. Well Wisher says:

    Does it mean he is prepared to settle the case before trial?
    The amount acquired from sale seems like a 5 to 10 billion settlement. Pay the fine before actual trial.
    The reason will soon become apparent.

  12. HeyKay says:

    I’m burned out on all the billionaires.
    I have been working to earn money in one wayor another since I was 9 years old. Cleaning, running errands, babysitting, yard work, retail, telemarketing, worked while in high school, worked while in technical college, worked 2 jobs at close to 70 hours per week for 3 straight years trying to get enough money to buy a starter house.
    At 61 I am now WFH, I have next to nothing for retirement because lots of my jobs had zero benefits, no 401K.
    I come from poverty. Work is survival to me and my siblings.

    So Musk, Bezos, Zuck, David Geffen, the Walton family, all of ya….Kiss my tired arse! 😀
    It’s like cartoon money to me.
    A million? OK, I understand a millionaire.
    But, billionaire, gazillionaire, Godzilla! I choose Godzilla.
    Ego. It’s all about ego for Musk and the Billionaire team.
    Wealth hoarding is nauseating to me and morally bankrupt. Eat.The.Rich!