Jury Determines Elon Musk’s ‘Stupid Tweets’ Led to Twitter Investors’ Losses

Elon Musk’s tweets about spam and bots led some investors to sell their shares at prices lower than the final offer. A California jury found that Musk misled Twitter investors before his $44 billion acquisition of the company in 2022, as reported by CNBC. The New York Times reported that Musk stated he didn’t think his posts would affect the markets, admitting, “If this was a trial about whether I made stupid tweets, I would say I’m guilty.” Musk’s lawyers plan to appeal, with damages potentially reaching $2.6 billion, according to plaintiff attorneys. The jury did not find Musk involved in a specific fraud scheme, but pointed to two tweets from May 2022 as materially false or misleading, causing investors to sell Twitter shares below the $54.20 offer per share. In May 2022, Musk placed the Twitter deal on hold, questioning the percentage of spam/fake accounts. He later suggested these might be higher than Twitter’s claims, criticizing Twitter’s CEO for not providing proof. Musk attempted to exit the deal in July, but after legal disputes and accusations against Twitter for fraud, he finalized the acquisition at the original price in October 2022. Investors soon filed a lawsuit against Musk.