Twitter drama ends in court: Elon Musk found guilty
Photo: American businessman Elon Musk (Getty Images)
A federal jury in San Francisco has found that Elon Musk intentionally misled Twitter shareholders while trying to lower the price of his 2022 acquisition of the platform, according to Bloomberg.
What the jury decided
The eight-member jury concluded that Musk's tweets, including his May 13, 2022 post announcing a "temporary pause" of the deal over allegedly too many fake accounts, were part of a deliberate plan. The goal was to depress Twitter's stock price to renegotiate the purchase terms.
The jury rejected two of the four fraud claims but upheld the other two.
How much he might pay
The exact damages will be determined later when shareholders file individual claims. Investor lawyer Mark Molamfi estimates total compensation could reach $2.6 billion.
Even that amount is unlikely to make a significant dent in Musk’s fortune, which stood at $661.1 billion on Friday, March 20.
How Musk bought Twitter
Musk initially offered $44 billion to buy Twitter. He later publicly expressed doubts, tweeting about bots, fake accounts, and questioning company data.
Twitter’s stock dropped to $32.52 per share — 40% below the buyout price. When Twitter sued, Musk ultimately agreed to the original price of $54.20 per share.
In court, he argued that the Delaware judge was biased against him. He also claimed that Twitter’s former executives misled him in public reports about bot accounts.
Musk commented on his controversial "pause" tweet: "It may not be my wisest tweet. I don't know if I would call it my stupidest. But if it led to this trial it probably qualifies as such." He also insisted he never officially "paused" the deal.
Investor attorney Joseph Cotchett said: "This case is much bigger than Twitter, this case goes right to the heart of Wall Street and what's been going on in recent years. It’s a great example of what you cannot do to the average investor."
Musk's team plans to appeal.
After acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk claimed the platform’s approach to content moderation "remains completely unchanged."
He also announced mass layoffs, citing losses of over $4 million per day, offering three months of severance to all employees.
Looking ahead, Musk plans to launch Grokipedia, an AI-based competitor to Wikipedia. The Grok chatbot from his xAI startup will analyze Wikipedia pages, detect errors and inaccuracies, and rewrite them. Musk has long criticized Wikipedia for having a liberal bias, and has even suggested cutting its funding in the past.
