A US federal jury has ruled that Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders in 2022 by making false statements about the social media platform’s fake accounts, leading to a drop in the company’s stock price. The verdict came after a three-week trial in San Francisco, where Musk was accused of intentionally driving down Twitter’s stock price to renegotiate or back out of his $44 billion acquisition deal. The jury found Musk liable for two tweets he made in May 2022, which were deemed to be misleading, but cleared him of engaging in a deliberate scheme to defraud investors.
The lawsuit was filed by Twitter shareholders who claimed they sold their shares at a lower price due to Musk’s statements. The damages are expected to be around $2.5 billion, pending the number of claimants. Musk’s lawyers have announced plans to appeal the decision, calling it a “bump in the road”.
