A US federal jury has found Elon Musk liable for defrauding Twitter shareholders in connection with the $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in 2022. Musk was found to have made two misleading statements about the number of bot accounts on Twitter, which were allegedly attempts to lower the price of Twitter shares so that he could renegotiate or withdraw from the purchase agreement.
The damages have not yet been determined, but the shareholder's lawyers estimate they could reach $2.5 billion. The case involves investors who sold Twitter shares between May 13 and October 4, 2022, when Musk's statements allegedly affected the price. The jury, however, found Musk not guilty of a separate charge that he ran a fraudulent scheme.
After Twitter was acquired, Musk changed the platform's name to X with the goal of making it a universal app like WeChat. To date, this has not materialized, with X's user base dwindling as many have migrated to Threads and Bluesky. X is now being acquired by xAI at a value of $33 billion, which is also seen as a tactic to maintain the value of X's shares, which have plummeted to the detriment of investors.
