Jury Finds Elon Musk Deliberately Deceived Twitter Investors During Botched Buyout

Elon Musk Found Liable for Misleading Twitter Investors

A California civil jury delivered a significant verdict on Friday, determining that Elon Musk deliberately misled Twitter investors as he attempted to walk away from his high-profile $44 billion deal to purchase the social media platform in 2022.

The Tweet That Started It All

At the heart of the case was a post Musk published on Twitter — now rebranded as X — in which he announced that his acquisition plans were being temporarily suspended. He cited concerns over the volume of spam and fake accounts on the platform, claiming he needed verification that bots accounted for fewer than 5% of the platform's total user base.

"Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users," Musk wrote at the time.

The markets reacted swiftly. In the days following that post, Twitter's share price dropped by approximately 8%, sending ripples of uncertainty through the investor community.

The Lawsuit and Legal Arguments

Investor Giuseppe Pampena filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former Twitter shareholders who had sold their shares during the period between May 13, 2022 — the day Musk published his controversial tweet — and October 4, 2022, when the acquisition was ultimately completed after Twitter sued Musk to force him to honor the agreement.

Pampena's legal team argued that Musk's public statements were a calculated move designed to manufacture doubt about Twitter's long-term viability, thereby artificially suppressing its stock price. According to this theory, Musk stood to benefit financially by driving the share price lower during the interim period.

Musk's defense attorneys countered that his expressed concerns about bots were entirely legitimate and reflected genuine reservations about the platform's user data. However, the jury sided with the plaintiffs, finding Musk's conduct to be intentionally deceptive.

Potential Financial Consequences

While the exact damages have not yet been determined, Pampena's legal team has indicated that the total payout could reach as high as $2.6 billion, according to reports from CNBC. Despite the eye-catching figure, the financial hit may be relatively modest for Musk, whose net worth Bloomberg currently estimates at well over $660 billion.

A Pattern of Controversial Tweets

This verdict is not the first time Musk has faced legal scrutiny over his social media activity. Back in 2018, he posted on Twitter that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share — a price representing a substantial premium over Tesla's market value at the time. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged him with securities fraud, alleging the posts were misleading to investors.

In court proceedings related to that case, Musk notably had to testify that his choice of the $420 figure was not a nod to cannabis culture — a widely recognized reference — but rather a genuine reflection of the premium he believed was appropriate. Musk ultimately prevailed in a shareholder lawsuit stemming from that "funding secured" tweet. This time, however, the outcome was different.

What Happened to Twitter After the Deal Closed?

Following the completion of the acquisition, Musk moved quickly to reshape the company. He rebranded Twitter as X and later merged it with his artificial intelligence venture, xAI, which Musk valued the combined entity at $113 billion. Most recently, SpaceX also merged with xAI, a move Musk has linked to his ambitions of constructing data centers in space.