US jury finds Elon Musk not liable in Tesla tweet trial

A US jury on Friday decided that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was “not liable” for the losses incurred by investors after he tweeted that he was thinking to take the company private and added “funding secured,” New York Times reported. In August 2018, Musk tweeted, “Am considering taking Tesla private at USD 420. Funding secured.” “Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that it’s contingent on a shareholder vote,” he added in the tweet. After this tweet, investors sued Musk, Tesla, and the company board, arguing that the CEO of Twitter’s statement regarding the embryonic plan to take the electric car company private had devastating financial consequences for them. But in a federal civil trial over the last three weeks, lawyers for Tesla and Mr. Musk, the car company’s chief executive, have argued that he was such a successful businessman that he could have easily obtained financing to take Tesla private, as per the report in New York Times. Tesla shares initially climbed 11 per cent on the day off on his original tweet, but they never reached that promised USD 420 level, reaching a high that day of USD 387.46. And they soon fell well below their pre-tweet price of USD 344, hitting USD 263.24 a month later, as it became clear that the funding was less than secure, prompting the shareholder suit that is just now reaching trial after more than four years, reported CNN.