San Francisco: A federal jury in San Francisco has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors during his turbulent $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022. The verdict concludes a high-profile class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders who claimed Musk deliberately drove down the company’s stock price to gain leverage for renegotiation. While the nine-member jury held Musk responsible for two specific misleading tweets, they absolved him of broader allegations that he engaged in an intentional “scheme” to defraud the market.
The trial focused on Musk’s social media activity in May 2022, particularly a tweet stating the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending a review of the platform’s bot and spam account percentage. Shareholders argued that these statements, along with claims that fake accounts exceeded 20%, were calculated to tank Twitter’s valuation after the broader tech market—and Tesla’s stock—began to slide. The jury agreed that Musk’s tweets regarding the bot count were misleading and influenced investors who sold their shares at a loss during the resulting uncertainty. However, they cleared him of liability regarding comments made on a podcast, ruling those as protected opinions.
While the exact total for damages is still being finalized, plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate the payout could reach approximately $2.1 billion in stock-related losses and an additional $500 million in options. The jury awarded affected shareholders between $3 and $8 per share for each day they held the stock during the period of volatility. This marks a rare legal defeat for Musk, who has historically prevailed in similar securities-related trials, including the 2023 “funding secured” case involving Tesla.
During his testimony, Musk maintained that he believed Twitter’s leadership had lied in regulatory filings about the prevalence of bots. He described his “on hold” tweet as a mistake but denied any intent to defraud, arguing that those who held their stock until the deal closed at the original $54.20 price actually saw a significant windfall. Despite the billionaire’s defense, the jury’s decision sends a strong signal regarding the legal consequences of market-moving social media posts. Musk’s legal team has already expressed intentions to appeal the verdict, characterizing the ruling as a “bump in the road.”
