Twitter investors allege the billionaire publicly derided the social network to sink its stock price and buy it at a bargain
Elon Musk testified Wednesday in a trial brought by Twitter investors, who allege the billionaire committed securities fraud as he was buying the social media company in 2022. The class-action lawsuit alleges Musk agreed to buy Twitter but then waffled for months, attacking the company with the goal of bringing down the stock price to get a better bargain.
After contentious legal wrangling, Musk did eventually buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, his original offer, totalling around $44bn. His lawyers have argued that he did not aim to lower Twitter’s stock price or hurt its investors.
Monday’s proceedings began with the investors’ attorney questioning Musk about whether he was aware that his public broadsides against Twitter would sway stock prices, according to CNBC. Musk responded, saying the “stock market is like a manic depressive”.
“My tweets have sometimes the opposite effect of what one would expect on stock prices,” he said, per CNBC. “Sometimes they have the expected effect.”
