{"id":68585,"date":"2026-03-05T00:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/elon-musk-testifies-in-twitter-shareholder-trial-alleging-he-purposefully-drove-down-stock-before-his-purchase\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T00:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:22:11","slug":"elon-musk-testifies-in-twitter-shareholder-trial-alleging-he-purposefully-drove-down-stock-before-his-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/elon-musk-testifies-in-twitter-shareholder-trial-alleging-he-purposefully-drove-down-stock-before-his-purchase\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk testifies in Twitter shareholder trial alleging he purposefully drove down stock before his purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Elon Musk took the stand in a shareholder trial on Wednesday in San Francisco, where he&#8217;s accused of making false and misleading statements that drove down Twitter&#8217;s stock price before he bought the social media platform for <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-twitter-sale-official-44-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">$44 billion<\/a><\/span> in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was filed in October 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Twitter shareholders who sold the stock between May 13 and Oct. 4, 2022, a few weeks before\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-posts-video-of-himself-strolling-into-twitter-hq\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Musk&#8217;s purchase of Twitter<\/a><\/span> was finalized. It claims Musk violated federal securities laws by making false, public statements that &#8220;were carefully calculated to drive down the price of Twitter stock.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The billionaire Tesla CEO reached a deal to buy Twitter and take it private in April 2022. On May 13, however, he declared his plan &#8220;temporarily on hold&#8221; and said he needs to pinpoint <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/musk-twitter-buy-holdup-spam-proof\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">the number of spam and fake accounts<\/a><\/span> on the platform. Twitter&#8217;s stock tumbled as a result. A few days later, he tweeted that the deal &#8220;cannot go forward&#8221; and claimed that almost 20% of Twitter accounts were &#8220;fake,&#8221; according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/04\/26892497-155c-408b-b8c3-0eabd7b9626a\/thumbnail\/620x349\/6b290f1547c26d3a5126366ccd3d90ea\/4a54db62-f683-4345-a9c5-b7c635a6e235.jpg#\" alt=\"4a54db62-f683-4345-a9c5-b7c635a6e235.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/04\/26892497-155c-408b-b8c3-0eabd7b9626a\/thumbnail\/620x349\/6b290f1547c26d3a5126366ccd3d90ea\/4a54db62-f683-4345-a9c5-b7c635a6e235.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/04\/26892497-155c-408b-b8c3-0eabd7b9626a\/thumbnail\/1240x698\/b36f93343e68943edfc674f8574e9501\/4a54db62-f683-4345-a9c5-b7c635a6e235.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Court sketch shows Elon Musk on the stand in a shareholder trial Wednesday in San Francisco.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Vicki Behringer<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The plaintiff&#8217;s lawyer, Aaron P. Arnzen, began with questioning Musk about his tweets \u2014 or lack of tweets \u2014 about his decision to buy Twitter and his purchases of Twitter stock prior to deciding to take the company private.<\/p>\n<p>Wearing a black suit and tie, Musk said he didn&#8217;t think it was &#8220;material&#8221; when, in early 2022, <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-twitter-tesla-3-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">he began amassing Twitter stock<\/a><\/span> and did not tweet about it or disclose to the <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/elon-musk-twitter-x-takeover-judge-orders-testify-sec-probe\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Securities and Exchange Commission<\/a><\/span>. He said he&#8217;s bought stock in &#8220;many companies&#8221; and did not post about it.<\/p>\n<p>Once he did, Twitter&#8217;s stock jumped 27% in one day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That sounds high,&#8221; Musk said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1525049369552048129\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Musk&#8217;s May 13 tweet<\/a> \u2014 &#8220;Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam\/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users&#8221; \u2014 was &#8220;false because the buyout was not, in fact, &#8216;temporarily on hold,'&#8221; the lawsuit says. That&#8217;s because Twitter did not agree to put the deal on hold, and there was nothing in the merger agreement the two parties signed that allowed Musk to put it on hold, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Arnzen questioned Musk about the tweet at length, asking if he thought whether it would have a &#8220;material impact&#8221; on Twitter&#8217;s stock. Musk said he made it explicit at the time that he was committed to the deal and that saying the deal was temporarily on hold was &#8220;like saying you&#8217;re going to be late for a meeting. (It doesn&#8217;t) mean you are not going to be at the meeting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/04\/8b38272f-5aad-4a1d-ba38-691779515091\/thumbnail\/620x403\/c26c24823159d7854f59144112fc6961\/gettyimages-2264190253.jpg#\" alt=\"Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover Trial Continues In San Francisco \" height=\"403\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/04\/8b38272f-5aad-4a1d-ba38-691779515091\/thumbnail\/620x403\/c26c24823159d7854f59144112fc6961\/gettyimages-2264190253.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/04\/8b38272f-5aad-4a1d-ba38-691779515091\/thumbnail\/1240x806\/194907d0090667300526861762220c99\/gettyimages-2264190253.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Elon Musk arrives at federal court on March 4, 2026, in San Francisco, California.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Josh Edelson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Twitter&#8217;s stock fell nearly 10% on May 13.<\/p>\n<p>Arnzen repeatedly asked Musk if he stopped to think about how the tweet would affect the stock market. Musk answered, repeatedly, &#8220;I was simply speaking my mind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the following weeks, Musk continued to try to delay or get out of the deal, which the lawsuit claims he did in the form of false, disparaging statements about Twitter&#8217;s business that drove the San Francisco company&#8217;s stock down sharply.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2022, Musk doubled down on the bots issue and said he would abandon his offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. That&#8217;s even though the lawsuit notes that Musk waived due diligence for his &#8220;take it or leave it&#8221; offer to buy Twitter. That means he waived his right to look at the company&#8217;s nonpublic finances.<\/p>\n<p>Musk was repeatedly asked Thursday if, before waiving due diligence, he asked about Twitter&#8217;s methodology for determining the number of fake or spam accounts, which the company disclosed to be about 5%. Musk said he did not, but that he assumed if Twitter put something in an SEC filing, &#8220;it would be accurate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It subsequently turned out they misrepresented the number of bots,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They lied.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The stock closed at $36.81 on July 8, when Musk tweeted he was abandoning the deal over the fake accounts issue. That&#8217;s 32% below Musk&#8217;s offer price of $54.20 per share.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To try to renegotiate the price or delay the merger, Musk made materially false and misleading statements and omissions, and engaged in a scheme to deceive the market, all in violation of the law,&#8221; the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n<p>The problem of bots and fake accounts on Twitter wasn&#8217;t new. The company had paid $809.5 million in 2021 to settle claims it was overstating its growth rate and monthly user figures. Twitter also disclosed its bot estimates to the SEC for years, while also cautioning that its estimate might be too low.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal, and Musk countersued. <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-deal-for-twitter-takeover-44-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">On Oct. 4<\/a><\/span>, Musk offered to go through with his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, which Twitter accepted. The deal closed later that month. In the ensuing months, Musk <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-3700-twitter-job-cuts-half-of-employees\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">slashed the company&#8217;s workforce<\/a><\/span>, gutted its <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/twitter-trust-and-safety-council-disbanded-elon-musk\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">trust and safety team<\/a><\/span> and <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-outsourced-content-moderators\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">rolled back content moderation policies<\/a><\/span>. In July 2023, he <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/twitter-rebrand-x-name-change-elon-musk-what-it-means\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">renamed Twitter as X<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that Musk has been dragged into court to defend himself against allegations of duping investors with his social media posts. Three years ago, Musk spent about eight hours testifying in a San Francisco federal trial about <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/elon-musks-mysterious-ways-on-display-in-tesla-tweet-trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">his plans to buy Tesla<\/a><\/span> \u2014 the electric automaker that he still runs as publicly traded company \u2014 for $420 per share in a proposed 2018 deal that never materialized. A nine-member jury absolved Musk of wrongdoing in that case.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/elon-musk-twitter-shareholder-trial-testimony\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk took the stand in a shareholder trial on Wednesday in San Francisco, where he&#8217;s accused of making false<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[703,2337],"class_list":["post-68585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-elon-musk","tag-twitter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Elon Musk testifies in Twitter shareholder trial alleging he purposefully drove down stock before his purchase - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elon Musk reached a deal to buy Twitter in April 2022. 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