federal court delivered a unanimous verdict against the tech titan, who was sued by a group of Twitter investors who argued they had relied on his statements. While testifying in court this month, Musk argued that he did not mislead investors and that people simply read too much into his public comments and tweets. The jury instead found that certain public claims he made about problems in Twitter's user metrics — and suggestions that he might back out of the USD 44bn acquisition deal — were intentionally misleading.

Lawyers for Musk did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did lawyers for the investors, led by Brian Belgrave, a small-business owner from Oregon. This is not the first time Musk has found himself in legal trouble over his tweets. However, he was able to defeat a 2023 lawsuit brought by Tesla shareholders claiming that the CEO had misled them with posts about the car company.

In Friday’s verdict, the San Francisco jury found that Musk had artificially lowered the price of Twitter’s stock by roughly USD 8 to USD 3 per share between May and October 2022 because of his public statements. That could mean each investor in the class is poised to receive thousands of dollars in damages for their losses.

Monte Mann, a trial attorney focused on business litigation at Armstrong Teasdale, said the verdict against Musk “sends a clear message.” “If you move the market with your words, you own the consequences.” Around May 2022, Musk began tweeting about Twitter’s alleged issues with fake accounts, or “bots,” and said the deal was “on hold” before later announcing that he wanted out of the agreement entirely. Twitter took Musk to court in an effort to force the billionaire to honour the deal. In October, Musk ultimately completed the takeover at the originally agreed price. The following year, he renamed the social media platform X.

Those months proved financially damaging for Twitter investors like Belgrave, who bought and sold shares of the company during that time. Belgrave told the jury earlier that he sold thousands of Twitter shares in July 2022, believing Musk was no longer going to buy the platform because of his public posts and comments. Belgrave’s sale price was lower than what he had paid for the shares a few months earlier, and significantly less than the USD 54.20 per share Musk eventually paid. “I got screwed,” Belgrave said. “I got cheated.”

During Musk’s testimony before the jury, he was more combative with lawyers representing the class of investors. He eventually refused to answer questions with a simple “yes” or “no,” arguing multiple times that the lawyers were trying to mislead the jury.

“If this was a trial on whether I’ve made stupid tweets, I’d say I’m guilty,” Musk conceded at one point. (BBC)