Musk was accused of deceiving investors when he tweeted he had secured enough funding to take Tesla private.
A jury in the United States has decided that Elon Musk did not deceive investors with his 2018 tweets about electric automaker Tesla.
The verdict on Friday represents a significant vindication for Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, a social media service he bought for $44bn a few months ago. The nine jurors reached their decision after less than two hours of deliberation, following a three-week trial that pitted Tesla investors, represented by a class-action lawsuit, against Musk.
Musk’s integrity was at stake at the trial, as well as part of the fortune that has established the Tesla CEO as one of the world’s richest people. He could have been saddled with a bill for billions of dollars in damages had the jury found him liable for the 2018 tweets that were already deemed falsehoods by the judge presiding over the trial.
Earlier on Friday, Musk sat stoically in court as closing arguments were presented in the trial. Representatives for the plaintiffs vilified him as a rich narcissist whose reckless behaviour risks “anarchy”, while defence lawyers hailed him as a visionary looking out for the “little guy”.
The trial hinged on whether Musk’s tweeting in 2018 misled Tesla shareholders, steering them in a direction they argue cost them billions of dollars. The civil case centred on two tweets Musk posted on August 7, 2018 about a Tesla buyout that never happened.
In the first tweet, posted just before he boarded his private jet, Musk declared he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. A few hours later, Musk sent another tweet indicating the deal was imminent.
The tweets caused Twitter’s stock to surge during a 10-day period covered by the lawsuit, before falling back after Musk abandoned a deal in which he never had a firm financing commitment, based on evidence presented during the three-week trial.
Musk’s decision to show up for the closing arguments – even though his presence was not required – underscored the importance of the trial’s outcome to him.
Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer for the Tesla shareholders, urged the jurors to rebuke Musk for his “loose relationship with the truth”.
