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Court ruling upholds verdict that Musk's false posts harmed investors, potentially leading to $2.6B damages for X Corp.
The US District Court in San Francisco on the 6th rejected a motion by entrepreneur Elon Musk to invalidate a verdict that found he harmed investors through false posts related to his acquisition of the former Twitter. Investors argued that Musk made posts suggesting Twitter was overrun with fake accounts and bots, partly to pressure a renegotiation of his buyout offer. A post on May 13, 2022, said the deal was temporarily on hold pending details on whether bots accounted for less than 5 percent of all users, causing Twitter shares to drop 18 percent over two days. The district judge noted there was substantial evidence that the May 13 post was false and that Musk used it as a pretext to back out of the existing agreement. However, the judge found no liability for a post on May 17 because the market did not react to it. According to estimates by investors' attorneys, damages based on the March 20 verdict this year could reach 2.6 billion dollars.
Court ruling upholds verdict that Musk's false posts harmed investors, potentially leading to $2.6B damages for X Corp.