Tesla boss Elon Musk has sold shares in the US electric car manufacturer worth billions and wants to arm himself for a possible defeat in the legal dispute over the Twitter takeover.
The star entrepreneur sold papers worth 6.9 billion US dollars (around 6.8 billion euros), according to reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is his biggest share sale in the company ever.
“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces the deal to close and some equity partners exit, it’s important to avoid a fire sale of Tesla shares,” the billionaire wrote on Twitter.
Musk accuses Twitter of false information
Musk is in a legal battle with the short message service because he wants to call off the $44 billion takeover of the service. Musk justified his withdrawal from the deal by saying that Twitter had misrepresented the number of fake accounts on the platform. The service also breached the contract by not providing sufficient access to check the numbers.
He previously agreed a price of $54.20 per Twitter share with the company and brought various partners on board to help finance the deal. A court hearing in the state of Delaware is scheduled for mid-October.
Meanwhile, Musk apparently wants to buy back Tesla stock if the Twitter takeover doesn’t go through. When asked by followers on Twitter if he would then stop selling and buying Tesla stock, he answered succinctly, “Yes.”