Elon Musk has lost a lawsuit against Twitter investors. He will pay them compensation

Billionaire Elon Musk misled Twitter investors in 2022 in an attempt to crash the quotes of the social network he was acquiring, a jury in San Francisco has ruled. The deal took nearly six months to materialize, during which time the billionaire repeatedly changed his position and Twitter tried to force him to honor the agreements. During the uncertainty, the shares of the social network, which was then a publicly traded company, fell about 40% below the value of the deal.

In 2022, Musk, after agreeing to buy Twitter, intentionally published two misleading tweets on the social network in hopes of getting a discount, according to a jury verdict described by Bloomberg. In those tweets, Musk wrote that there were too many fake accounts on Twitter and that the deal was "on hold." Musk's comments caused Twitter's stock to crash nearly 10% in a trading session.

After the court decision Musk will have to pay compensation to the plaintiffs - Twitter investors. Its amount will be determined later, but it could reach hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, Bloomberg writes. However, this is unlikely to affect the state of Musk, whom Forbes recognized as the richest man in the world. According to March 20, his capital was estimated at $814.3 billion.

Musk may appeal, Bloomberg noted. The billionaire and his lawyers did not comment on the decision.

In April 2022, Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter - a service he used all the time - for $44 billion. Three weeks later, he announced that the deal had been put on pause to check the social network's bot share. Musk argued that there are many more fake accounts on Twitter than the company declares and that the amount of the deal could be lowered. In July, Musk said he was backing out of the purchase.

Twitter, in turn, went to court, asking to oblige Musk to fulfill the deal. Shortly before the trial began, Musk changed his mind again and agreed to acquire Twitter on the terms originally proposed. He later said he opted to settle the proceedings because he expected the judge to be biased. The deal closed in October 2022. After the purchase, the billionaire renamed Twitter to X and made it a private company.

While the fate of the deal remained uncertain, Twitter's stock fell about 40% below the price Musk originally offered, AP notes. Some investors who sold shares during the period of uncertainty lost money and filed a class action lawsuit.

During the trial, Musk insisted that his tweet about suspending the deal did not mean he was completely abandoning the purchase. "It may not be my wisest tweet. I don't know if I'd call it the dumbest. But if it led to this lawsuit, it can probably be called that," he said (quoted by Bloomberg).

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor