- Elon Musk said he counted on selling SpaceX stock to take Tesla private when he tweeted “funding secured” in 2018.
- “SpaceX stock alone meant ‘funding secured’ by itself,” the billionaire CEO said in a civil court Monday.
- Musk’s notorious tweet has landed him in legal battle with Tesla shareholders who claim he manipulated the carmaker’s share price.
Elon Musk said he counted on selling SpaceX stock to take Tesla private when he tweeted “funding secured” in 2018.
The billionaire CEO defended his tweet in a civil court Monday after being sued by Tesla shareholders for claiming he had secured funds to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
“SpaceX stock alone meant ‘funding secured’ by itself. It is not that I need to sell SpaceX stock but I could have, and should you have a look at the Twitter transaction — that’s what I did. I sold Tesla stock to finish the Twitter transaction. And I might have done the identical here,” Musk said in court, in keeping with CNBC.
Previously, Musk has said he thought he had funding secured from Saudi Arabia’s Investment Fund. He said he had a handshake deal for the fund to supply the mandatory money for Tesla to delist from the S&P 500.
Nonetheless, the deal never happened, and investors suing the world’s second-richest person claim Musk manipulated the electric-vehicle maker’s share price along with his tweet.
Musk didn’t state what number of shares within the rocket company he would have needed to sell, or at what price, as a way to fund the Tesla buyout, CNBC reported. Musk has formerly said that it will’ve costed about $70 billion to purchase out all Tesla shareholders on the time of the tweet.
Because the trial gets underway, Musk has revealed some more details about his notorious tweet. He denied that it was a joke for the advantage of then-girlfriend Grimes, while acknowledging the number at which he selected to take Tesla private at $420 per share is coincidentally tied to a preferred reference in cannabis culture.