Elon Musk cleared of deceiving investors with tweets

Investors attempted to sue Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, for billions of dollars due to his tweets that led to a surge and subsequent crash of Tesla’s stock prices.

An economist hired by the shareholders estimated the losses could reach as much as $12 billion. The lawsuit focused on whether Mr. Musk’s tweets in 2018 were misleading to Tesla shareholders. The civil lawsuit was based on two tweets that Mr. Musk sent on August 7, 2018 regarding a proposed Tesla buyout that never materialized.

The first tweet, sent before he boarded his private jet, stated that he had secured funding to make Tesla private. A few hours later, another tweet was sent by Mr. Musk suggesting that the deal was about to happen.