Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, has sold 7.92 million shares of Tesla worth $6.9 billion, according to a series of financial filings in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Admitting that he could need the funds if he loses his ongoing legal battle against Twitter, Musk tweeted a reply: “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.”
The transactions started a day after Tesla’s 2022 annual shareholder meeting on August 4 in Austin, and continued until August 9. Musk now owns 155 million Tesla shares or just under 15 percent.
On April 28 this year, Musk said on social media that he had “no further TSLA sales planned”. That week, Musk had sold Tesla shares worth approximately $8.4 billion.
The tech billionaire is involved in a legal battle with Twitter after walking out on a $44 billion deal to buy the company at $54.2 per share. Musk has said it was because of the number of bots, or fake accounts, on Twitter, which the company failed to disclose in discussions with him. Twitter, on the other hand, believes it is because its share price had fallen nearly 25% in the recent market decline.
A trial will take place in Delaware in October.
In the Twitter exchange, Musk was asked if he was done selling Tesla shares, and also if he was planning to buy back the shares in the future.
The SpaceX owner replied ‘Yes’ to both the questions, and also revealed he was planning to build his own social media platform, which he called “X.com”.
The revelation of share sale came after the day’s trading session was over. Tesla shares were down $21.27, or slightly over 2 percent, at $850.
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