Elon Musk Sells Tesla Shares Worth $7 Billion

Elon Musk has sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla stock, according to legal documents released Tuesday, amid a high stakes legal battle with Twitter over a $44 billion buyout deal.

The Tesla boss sold some 7.9 million shares between August 5 and 9, according to documents published on the Securities and Exchange Commission website.

“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners fail, it’s important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Twitter is engaged in a legal battle with the mercurial Tesla boss over its bid to walk away from the April deal to buy the company, and a judge has ordered a trial to begin in October.

Musk has counter-charged, accusing Twitter of fraud, alleging that the social media platform misled him about important aspects of his company before agreeing to a $44 billion buyout.

The move comes after Musk sold about $8.5 billion worth of shares in the electric carmaker in April as he prepared to fund the Twitter deal. He tweeted at the time, “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”

AFP

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