Elon Musk is also facing a lawsuit from shareholders accusing him of lowering Twitter’s share price.
Washington:
US market authorities have asked Elon Musk to explain an apparent delay in reporting his stock purchases on Twitter, the agency revealed Friday as the latest questions about the methods and intentions of his troubling bid for the platform.
Musk became a major Twitter shareholder after purchasing 73.5 million shares in early April and launched a hostile takeover bid less than two weeks later.
He went on to sign a $44 billion deal to buy the San Francisco-based company, but has since given mixed signals about how committed he is to moving forward.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) letter to Musk showed that regulators asked him to explain why he failed to disclose his increased stake in Twitter within the required 10-day period, especially if he intended to buy the company. .
“Your response should include your recent public statements on the Twitter platform regarding Twitter, including statements asking whether Twitter adheres strictly to the principles of freedom of expression,” the regulators said in the letter of 4. April.
Neither Musk nor the SEC immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Tesla chief is a frequent Twitter user and regularly fires off inflammatory and controversial statements about issues or other public figures with comments that are whimsical or businesslike.
He has repeatedly sparred with federal securities regulators, cracking down on his use of social media after an alleged attempt to take Tesla private in 2018 fell apart.
Musk has cited the right to free speech as a driver of his efforts to undo an agreement with the SEC that tightened his use of the social media platform after his August 2018 tweet that funding had been “secured” to Tesla. to take privately.
Musk also faces a lawsuit this week that accuses him of pushing Twitter’s stock price down to give himself an escape hatch from his buyout offer, or room to negotiate a discount.
The lawsuit alleges Musk tweeted and made statements designed to cast doubt on the deal, which has been circulating on the social media platform for weeks.
Musk went on to make statements, send tweets and conduct designed to cast doubt on the deal and significantly lower Twitter’s shares, the indictment said.
His goal was to gain leverage to get Twitter at a much lower price, or back out of the deal without being fined, the lawsuit argued.
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