Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has sold Tesla shares for nearly $7 billion, according to a legal document released Tuesday, amid a legal battle with Twitter over a $44 billion buyout deal. The founder of the Tesla automaker sold 7.9 million shares between August 5 and August 9, according to the document posted on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency that regulates the American stock market.
Also read: Musk offloads $4 bn in Tesla shares after Twitter deal
“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces the conclusion of this agreement, and that some equity partner partners do not participate, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Twitter is fighting a legal battle with the temperamental Musk over his attempt to abandon a deal announced in April to buy the social network. Musk pledged to offer $54.20 for each Twitter share, but later accused the social network of fraud and claims the platform misled him about crucial aspects of the company before agreeing to the $44 billion purchase.
In April, the Tesla CEO sold nearly $8.5 billion in shares of the electric car maker as he prepared to finance the Twitter purchase.At the time, he stated that no further sales of Tesla securities would happen.
Musk is now challenging Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to “publicly debate the percentage of fake accounts” on the network, by asking him to “prove to the public that Twitter has less than 5% fake or unwanted daily users.”
Read more on the subject: Court battle to open in Musk, Twitter buyout fight
The court battle will begin on October 17 in a specialized commercial law court in the state of Delaware and is expected to last five days. As soon as the acquisition agreement was broken, Twitter sued the richest man on the planet to force him to fulfill his promise.
Musk has counter-sued in the same court with a lawsuit demanding the release of the deal and order Twitter to pay damages. The chances that the Tesla owner will end up paying only the damages for breaking the agreement (a billion dollars) or that the court will meet his demands are considered very small by analysts.
Twitter shareholders plan to meet on September 13 to authorize or not the acquisition, which would mean significant added value for them.
Between the general stock market decline in recent months, reduced social media advertising revenue linked to the economic situation, and Elon Musk’s public criticism, Twitter shares fell to almost $32 on July 11.
Also read: Twitter shares data with Musk to follow up on purchase deal
At Tuesday’s close, Twitter’s stock was trading at $42.83, down 0.26 percent, and Tesla was down 2.44 percent at $850 per share. At the end of July, the automotive group reported solid results for the second quarter of the year, with a profit of $2.3 billion for the period, almost double that recorded for the same three months in 2021.
However, for the first time since the beginning of 2021, profits did not reach a new record high. And revenue, at $16.9 billion, was also below expectations.
