Elon Musk found liable for defrauding Twitter shareholders during $44B takeover, damages estimated at $2.5B

A San Francisco federal jury found Elon Musk liable on Friday for two statements he made on social media in 2022 claiming Twitter's bot problem made the $44B acquisition untenable, which shareholders argued artificially depressed the stock price so Musk could renegotiate or exit the deal. Damages have not yet been calculated, but plaintiff attorney Francis Bottini estimated they could total around $2.5B, covering investors who sold Twitter shares between May 13 and October 4, 2022. Musk's legal team called the verdict “a bump in the road” and said they look forward to an appeal, a path Musk has taken before, having won similar shareholder fraud cases involving Tesla's 2018 “funding secured” tweet and his $139B pay package.