Tesla, Musk sells the shares. The Twitter case weighs heavily

It weighs the nuanced purchase of Twitter. The CEO of the car brand explained that it was better to sell now than in an emergency situation. The clash in court continues with the social network

Elon Musk takes advantage of the recent jump in Tesla stocks to proceed with the sale of shares for 6.9 billion dollars in order to position himself in the best possible way ahead of the legal confrontation with Twitter. The richest man in the world sold about 7.9 million shares at an average price of $ 869 each, which is higher than the $ 620 in May. The transaction, at the end of which Musk remains with 15% of the electric car giant, was welcomed by Wall Street, where Tesla came to earn 4% seeing the pressure and uncertainty on the stock easing.

twitter and the nuanced purchase

The sale is the first since April, when Musk sold 8.5 billion shares of Tesla after reaching a deal to buy the company that tweets for $ 44 billion. Since then, the cards on the table have profoundly changed: Musk has in fact decided to turn his back on Twitter and withdraw from the agreement reached, accusing the company of fraud for the falsified data on the number of bots and spam or fake accounts. A step back that prompted the social media to sue Tesla’s patron, paving the way for a clash in court. The appointment is now for October when the two sides, before the Delaware court, will compete face to face for the first time after months of back and forth from a distance.

the reasons for the sale

The sale of nearly $ 7 billion worth of Tesla stock aims to avoid an “emergency sale” of shares in the event that Musk is forced by the court to proceed with the acquisition of Twitter. “In the event (hopefully unlikely) that he is forced to close the deal, it is important to avoid emergency sales of Tesla securities,” the billionaire said. To a follower who asked him on Twitter if he had finished with the sales, the number one of SpaceX also answered with a sharp “yes”, explaining that he intends to buy back titles of the electric car giant in the event that the agreement with Twitter doesn’t shut down.

what the agreement says

Under the agreement with the company that chirps Musk is personally responsible for 33.5 of the 44 billion of the established purchase price. The remainder is expected to come in the form of debt and Musk has already announced that he has collected commitments of more than seven billion from various investors. The deal also includes a $ 1 billion penalty in the event of a deal breakdown and “performance specifics” that forces Musk to honor the takeover unless he can prove he was duped. And Tesla’s boss never hid his belief that Twitter tricked him with inaccurate account data. An accusation that initially led many to believe that Musk wanted to obtain a purchase price much lower than the established one. In fact, several observers believe that the figure of 44 billion does not find much justification in the latest quarterly results of Twitter. The chirping company rejected Musk’s attacks as “implausible excuses”. The last word of the saga now awaits the court, even if Musk’s uncertainty about respecting any decision is not swept away.



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