Elon Musk has sold millions of Tesla shares in recent days, raising nearly $7 billion, to prepare for the possibility he might be forced to buy a company he no longer wants.
Musk sells $6.9 billion in Tesla shares ahead of Twitter trial
The sales come as Musk is preparing for a contentious court battle with Twitter, which is suing the world’s richest man to prevent him from backing out of the $44 billion acquisition announced in April. Much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in his companies and other investments, and he has been using his Tesla shares toward some of the purchase costs.
Though Musk did not disclose a reason for the sale in regulatory filings, he made his motivation clear on Twitter late Tuesday evening: “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 said in a tweet.
Musk launched his Twitter takeover in April, saying he sees the platform as a kind of town square that can foster conversation or even prevent international conflicts. But he later backed out of the deal, citing concern over the proportion of spam or fake accounts on the website. Twitter is suing him to compel him to complete the transaction, and a trial date has been set for October.
Musk had planned to finance the takeover with three loans worth $46.5 billion, one of which used his shares in Tesla as collateral. He last sold Tesla shares on April 28, at which point he tweeted “no further TSLA sales planned after today.”
Tesla shares jumped 3 percent in early trading Wednesday amid a broader stock-market rally. Twitter gained 3.2 percent.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Source: WP
