Elon Musk faces another lawsuit over his planned acquisition on Twitter. Reuters reports that investors have sued Tesla CEO for allegedly manipulating stock prices ahead of his $ 44 billion takeover bid. As in a previous lawsuit, Musk allegedly saved $ 156 million by not revealing that he had bought more than a 5% stake in Twitter on March 14, in violation of SEC rules. Investors said Musk only revealed his investments in early April, when he revealed he owned 9.2 percent of the social network.
Statements following Musk’s announcement also involved manipulation, investors said. They were especially concerned about their claim that the deal was “pending” until Twitter could prove that robots were not a major problem and accounted for less than 5 percent of accounts.
The plaintiffs in the case are awaiting the status of class action and claim unspecified damages if successful. Twitter declined to comment, and Musk did not respond to Reuters comments.
The expected purchase of Musk has already led to a number of legal actions. In addition to the aforementioned April lawsuit, a Florida pension fund sued Musk for allegedly violating a Delaware law that would ban the merger until 2025. Meanwhile, the SEC is investigating the timing of Musk’s disclosure. There is no certainty that any of these actions will be successful, but they still pose serious challenges to Musk’s ambitions.
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