Trending Now - Elon Musk Justifies Tweets Amid Lawsuit Over Twitter Stock Drop

WHO:

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

Twitter shareholders (plaintiffs in the lawsuit)

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Aaron P. Arnzen, plaintiff's lawyer

Ned Segal, former CEO of Twitter

WHAT:

Musk is accused of making false and misleading statements that drove down Twitter's stock price before his purchase of the platform.

The lawsuit claims Musk violated federal securities laws.

Musk's purchase of Twitter was finalized for $44 billion in October 2022, at a price of $54.20 per share.

Musk's May 13, 2022 tweet stated the Twitter deal was "temporarily on hold" pending details about spam and fake accounts, which the lawsuit claims was false.

The stock price fell nearly 10% on May 13, 2022, and closed at $36.81 on July 8, 2022, which was 32% below Musk's offer price.

Musk claimed that almost 20% of Twitter accounts were fake, contradicting Twitter's disclosure of 5%.

Musk's actions allegedly included making materially false and misleading statements to deceive the market.

WHERE:

San Francisco, California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

WHEN:

Lawsuit filed in October 2022

Musk's purchase of Twitter finalized in October 2022

Musk's tweet on May 13, 2022

Stock closed at $36.81 on July 8, 2022

Musk's testimony began on March 4, 2026, and continued on March 5, 2026

WHY:

The lawsuit alleges Musk attempted to drive down Twitter's stock price to renegotiate the purchase price or abandon the deal.

Musk claimed he was misled by Twitter's board regarding the number of fake accounts.

HOW:

Musk's statements and tweets are claimed to have influenced the stock market negatively.

Musk waived due diligence for his "take it or leave it" offer to buy Twitter, meaning he did not review the company's nonpublic finances.

Musk's testimony included assertions that he believed Twitter's disclosures about bot accounts were inaccurate.

QUOTES:

Musk's May 13 tweet: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”

Musk stated, “I was simply speaking my mind.”

Musk described Twitter's calculations as "BS" and claimed, “They lied” about the number of bot accounts.

In a San Francisco courtroom, Elon Musk is facing a lawsuit from Twitter shareholders who accuse him of making false statements that led to a significant drop in Twitter's stock price before his $44 billion purchase of the platform was finalized in October 2022. The lawsuit claims Musk violated federal securities laws, particularly pointing to his May 13, 2022 tweet that suggested the deal was "temporarily on hold" due to concerns over spam accounts, which allegedly caused the stock to plummet nearly 10 percent that day. Musk's testimony began last Monday and continued into Tuesday, where he maintained that he believed Twitter misled him about the number of fake accounts, describing their calculations as "BS" and asserting, "They lied."