Elon Musk sold about $ 7 billion in Tesla stock. By his own admission, he did so in anticipation of losing the lawsuit against Twitter.
Elon Musk sold about $ 7 billion in Tesla stock . By his own admission, he has made the decision to sell now for fear of having to do so later – under much more unfavorable conditions – in case he is forced to enter into the Twitter acquisition deal . As can be seen from the documents filed with the SEC, the shares were sold between 5 and 9 August.
The trial for the lawsuit brought against him by Twitter will begin in October and could end very quickly. A matter of five days. The judge may not just force the billionaire to pay a fine, but may decide to force him to buy 100% of the shares of Twitter, as he promised between April and May. The operation would cost $ 44 billion – and the entrepreneur, quite simply, doesn’t have all this liquidity.
If things went this way, Musk would be forced to sell a large number of Tesla shares. There is a risk that between now and October the value of his company’s shares will drop further, making financing the Twitter acquisition even more difficult.
Elon Musk himself has confirmed that he wants to buy back the Tesla shares just sold in the event that he will not be forced to buy the social network.
Also with the aim of having enough liquidity to finance the operation, Elon Musk had already sold an additional $ 8 billion in Tesla stock in April. At the time, Tesla’s shares were worth 25% more than they are today. The original plan was that the operation would also be co-financed by several banks, as well as some of Musk’s partners, including Binance founder and Larry Ellison.