Musk to be questioned under oath in Twitter acquisition case
Kyiv • UNN
Billionaire Elon Musk will be questioned under oath on April 3 in Washington in the case of the Twitter purchase in 2022. Investors accuse him of intentionally lowering the company's stock value before the acquisition for $44 billion.
Billionaire Elon Musk will testify under oath in the case regarding his purchase of Twitter in 2022. The investors' lawsuit claims that his periodic attempts to buy the platform were a ruse to lower its stock price. This is reported by UNN citing Bloomberg.
Details
"Elon Musk must be questioned under oath about his acquisition of Twitter Inc. in 2022 as part of an investors' lawsuit, which claims that his periodic attempts to buy the social media platform were a ruse to lower its stock price," the statement says.
It is reported that after Musk's lawyers initially refused to compel him to appear in person for testimony, Musk agreed to meet with the investors' lawyers on April 3 in Washington according to a court filing submitted on Friday by lawyers for both sides.
Although Musk has recently been busy working as a key advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump on government spending cuts, he has also been involved in numerous legal battles related to half a dozen of his companies and personal investments.
Investors claim that his indecision about whether to buy Twitter, including his public attacks on how the platform was managed, cast doubt on the possibility of closing the deal and crashed its stock price, harming investors while improving Musk's negotiating position. Ultimately, Musk completed the buyout for $44 billion after being sued for attempting to back out of the deal. He later renamed the company to X Corp.
In December 2023, a federal judge in San Francisco dismissed Musk's motion to dismiss the case, stating that his statements "did indeed create an impression that was significantly different from the state of affairs that existed."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk in January, just days before Trump was sworn in as president, over allegations that the billionaire missed the deadline to disclose his growing stake in Twitter prior to the acquisition. The agency claims that by accumulating shares at unfairly discounted prices behind the scenes, Musk cost Twitter shareholders, who unwittingly sold too early, more than $150 million.
Supplement
On January 14, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk. The SEC claims that the billionaire committed securities fraud in 2022 by failing to disclose that he had acquired an active stake in Twitter, which allowed him to buy shares at "artificially depressed prices."
