Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive officer (CEO), stood trial over allegations that he intentionally drove down the stock price during the process of acquiring Twitter (now X).
According to major foreign media including the Financial Times (FT) on the 4th (local time), CEO Musk appeared as a witness at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and explained that while the stock price fell due to posts he made during the 2022 Twitter acquisition, he did not intend to cause losses to investors.
He said, "It may not have been my wisest tweet (Twitter post)," but added, "I don't know if it should be called the dumbest tweet. If that's what led to this trial, then it probably should be called that." He continued, "I just tweet whatever comes to mind, and people tend to read too much into what I do."
In Apr. 2022, CEO Musk signed a contract to acquire Twitter for $54.20 per share, totaling $44 billion (about 64 trillion won), but in May of the same year, he abruptly said on his Twitter account, "The acquisition transaction is temporarily on hold pending details supporting the calculation that spam and fake accounts are less than 5% of users." In July of the same year, he suddenly terminated the acquisition contract, then reversed his position after Twitter filed a lawsuit, and completed the acquisition in Oct.
During this process, Twitter's stock price repeatedly rose and fell, then dropped to around $30 per share.
Twitter investors filed a lawsuit, saying they suffered losses as Musk repeatedly hinted at terminating the acquisition contract, driving down the stock price. FT noted that if the jury sides with the investors, Musk could be liable for damages amounting to several billion dollars. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.