Jury Finds Musk Liable for Misleading Twitter Investors

A federal jury in San Francisco has found Elon Musk liable for misleading Twitter shareholders through two social media posts in May 2022, actions that drove down the company's stock price during negotiations for his $44 billion acquisition of the platform. The verdict, reached after nearly four days of deliberation in a civil class-action lawsuit, absolved Musk of broader allegations that he schemed to defraud investors. Damages could reach up to $2.6 billion, according to estimates from the plaintiffs' attorneys, with the exact amount to be determined in follow-up proceedings.

The case centered on Musk's public statements amid his turbulent bid to purchase Twitter, which he later rebranded as X. In April 2022, Musk agreed to buy the company for $54.20 per share, valuing it at approximately $44 billion. However, he soon expressed concerns over the prevalence of fake and spam accounts, or bots, on the platform, claiming Twitter had understated their numbers in regulatory filings. Twitter reported that bots accounted for less than 5 percent of users, a figure Musk publicly disputed.

The specific statements at issue included a May 13, 2022, tweet from Musk stating that the deal...