Elon Musk sells $7B in Tesla shares ahead of Twitter fight as the billionaire gets his finances in order ahead of his court battle with Twitter. Musk disclosed in series of regulatory filings that he unloaded about 8 million shares of his company Tesla Inc. in recent days.
“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” Musk tweeted late Tuesday.
Musk is by far the largest individual shareholder in both Tesla and Twitter. Tesla stock surged 4% to $883.07 on Wednesday.
Twitter Inc. shares rose 3.7% to close at $44.43, up 36% since July 11, with most analysts believing Musk has a long shot in court.
Musk sued Twitter last week, accusing the business of deception in connection with his failed $44 billion takeover.
He claimed that Twitter withheld vital information and deceived his staff about its user base size.
Musk alleges that Twitter committed fraud, breach of contract and violation of a securities law in Texas, where Musk lives.
Musk made a bid to buy Twitter earlier this year, but then tried to back out of the agreement, alleging the social platform was riddled with more “spam bots” and bogus accounts than Twitter had reported.
