Elon Musk takes the stand in Twitter stock case

Elon Musk took the stand in a shareholder trial in San Francisco, where he’s accused of making false and misleading statements that drove down Twitter's stock price before he bought the social media platform for $44 billion in 2022.

- By BARBARA ORTUTAY AND MICHAEL LIEDTKE

JOSH EDELSON Getty Images TESLA CHIEF EXECUTIVE Elon Musk, left, arrives at federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The lawsuit was filed in October 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Twitter shareholders who sold the stock between May 13 and Oct. 4, 2022, a few weeks before Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized. It claims Musk violated federal securities laws by making false, public statements that “were carefully calculated to drive down the price of Twitter stock.”

The billionaire Tesla CEO reached a deal to buy Twitter and take it private in April 2022. On May 13, however, he declared his plan “temporarily on hold” and said he needs to pinpoint the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Twitter's stock tumbled as a result. A few days later, he tweeted that the deal “cannot go forward” and claimed that almost 20% of Twitter accounts were “fake,” according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Aaron P. Arnzen, began with questioning Musk on Wednesday about his tweets — or lack of tweets — about his decision to buy Twitter and his purchases of Twitter stock prior to deciding to take the company private.

Wearing a black suit and tie, Musk said he didn’t think it was “material” when, in early 2022, he began amassing Twitter stock and did not tweet about it or disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He said he’s bought stock in “many companies” and did not post about it.

Once he did, Twitter's stock jumped 27% in one day.