This sale comes as the manufacturer is engaged in a legal tussle over the takeover of the social network Twitter.
Elon Musk vs Twitter, umpteenth twist. This time, the whimsical boss seems well and truly overtaken by material contingencies. No more sweeping statements without assuming the consequences. Elon Musk admitted to having sold 6.9 billion Tesla shares this week explaining, in a tweet, that he wished “avoid an emergency sale of Tesla shares“, in the scenario – which he hopes “unlikely”-, where he would be forced to buy Twitter and lose the support of some of his financial partners. The emergency? Or the consequence of a court decision.
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In the spring, Elon Musk announced that he wanted to buy Twitter for a whopping $44 billion, including $30 billion taken from his personal fortune. With this in mind, he had sold in April for 8.5 billion Tesla shares. The moody boss then explained that he would not make any other sales of this type. New reversal of situation at the beginning of July. He then renounced to buy Twitter, which would not have fulfilled its legal obligations, would have refused to transmit certain information and would lie about the number of spam passing through its platform. Fury at Twitter, whose course unscrews. The social network has taken the case to court and intends to force Elon Musk to keep his word, that is to say, to pay 44 billion dollars for his takeover.
In the United States, however, some observers are beginning to question the purpose of these movements. What if the Twitter affair had only been a smokescreen, allowing Elon Musk to sell his Tesla shares, without alerting the markets? In total, he has sold more than $ 32 billion of shares in the electric car manufacturer since the start of the year. He still owns 14.84% of the capital of Tesla, the equivalent of 132 billion dollars
Read alsoElon Musk accuses Twitter of “fraud” in the legal battle over the takeover
Disagreement with Twitter
Read alsoElon Musk accuses Twitter of “fraud” in the legal battle over the takeover
The legal battle, it is launched: a trial must open on October 17 before the Delaware Court of Chancery, a court specializing in business law, and last five days. As soon as the takeover agreement was broken, Twitter indeed sued the richest man on the planet, to force him to honor his promise. Elon Musk counterattacked in the same court, with a complaint in which he asks the court to release him from the agreement and order Twitter to pay him damages. The chances that he will get out of it by paying only the indemnities for breaking the agreement (one billion dollars), or that he will be declared in his right, are considered very low by the experts. The shareholders of Twitter must meet on September 13 to authorize or not this acquisition, which would represent a substantial added value for the shareholders.
SEE ALSO – Twitter sues Elon Musk to force him to buyout
As of Tuesday night’s close, Twitter stock ended at $42.83 down 0.26% and Tesla was down 2.44% at $850. The automotive group published solid second quarter results at the end of July, with a profit of 2.3 billion dollars over the period, almost twice as much as in the second quarter of last year. But for the first time since the start of 2021, its profits did not rise to a new record. And its turnover, at 16.9 billion dollars, also disappointed. But the manufacturer could benefit from new subsidies from the American government, within the framework of the “CHIPS and Science Act”, which provides nearly 200 billion in subsidies and credit for sectors likely to recreate advanced industrial jobs in the United States.