Elon Musk’s testimony is set to be completed on Tuesday.
San Francisco:
Elon Musk told jurors Monday that his 2018 tweet about privatizing Tesla for $420 a share was no joke and that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund was serious about helping him do it.
The Tesla boss returned to the witness stand to answer questions from lawyers for angry investors who are accusing him of costing them millions of dollars with two allegedly bogus tweets about securing funding for their buyout to have.
An attorney for the plaintiffs focused on Musk’s buyout number of 420, a number that’s also a popular collective code for marijuana that Musk uses.
“420 wasn’t chosen because of a joke, but because there was a 20 percent premium on the stock price,” Musk said when asked if he was laughing when he tweeted.
However, Musk added that there was “some karma around 420,” although “I should be wondering if that’s good or bad karma at this point.”
The case revolves around two tweets in which Musk said “funding secured” for a project to buy out the publicly traded electric carmaker, then added in a second tweet that “investor support is confirmed.”
The tweets sent Tesla’s share price on a rollercoaster ride, and Musk was sued by shareholders who say the tycoon acted recklessly to blackmail investors who had bet or “gone short” against the company.
Musk called short sellers “evil” in the process.
“It’s difficult to assess right now how much Tesla has been attacked by short sellers who wanted Tesla to die,” Musk told jurors.
– ‘Done deal’ –
But Musk said he fired the tweets in question after learning about a Financial Times story about a Saudi Arabian investment fund looking to buy a stake in Tesla.
“My concern was that if they know all this information, they might also know something about the privatization,” Musk said of the news report.
Musk testified that the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund “clearly and unquestionably” supports his project, adding that the head of the fund told him that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is also on board.
“So basically what I took from that was that it was a done deal,” Musk said.
When confronted about the exchange with the Saudi fund, which indicated he wanted more details before committing to his takeover plan, Musk said the fund was “resigning.”
Musk said he understands the fund would do anything to take Tesla private and he has plenty of cash to do so.
The billionaire added that even without the Saudi fund, he had the personal wealth to privatize Tesla at the time, including by using his stake in SpaceX, the company he also runs.
Musk said he shared some details of his plan with tech billionaire and Tesla investor Larry Ellison, who is among the witnesses scheduled to testify in the fraud trial.
During testimony last week, a Harvard professor called by the plaintiffs to testify said Musk’s plans were “illusory” and deviated greatly from how such mega deals typically take place.
In his own opening remarks, Musk attorney Alex Spiro said that while the tweets may have been “reckless choice of words,” they “were not cheating, not even close.”
“I am accused of fraud, this is outrageous,” Musk said when his lawyer took over the questioning on Monday.
The tycoon’s testimony is set to be completed on Tuesday.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video of the Day
Downsizing Saga: When Will Big Tech Winter End?