Twitter shareholders accuse billionaire Elon Musk of ‘manipulating the market’

Billionaire Elon Musk – Photo: AFP

The lawsuit filed by Twitter shareholder William Heresniak alleges that the Tesla owner made “posts” on Twitter and statements with the intent to cast doubt on the Twitter acquisition.

Elon Musk’s social media posts and statements have caused a stir on Twitter over the past several weeks, AFP news agency reported.

On May 26, Heresniak shareholders filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco, California, asking the court to restore the validity of the deal and compensate shareholders for damages.

In April 2022, billionaire Elon Musk announced an agreement to acquire Twitter for $ 44 billion, at $54.2 per share.

However, on May 13, he announced that the deal was on hold because he needed more evidence from Twitter that the percentage of spam accounts was less than 5%, as this social network announced. According to the lawsuit, there is no provision in the contract to stop the takeover.

According to Heresniak, billionaire Musk negotiated to buy Twitter at the end of April without conducting due diligence, which is a necessary process in large deals.

“Mr Musk continued to make statements, post tweets, and engage in conduct intended to cast doubt on the deal and cause Twitter’s stock to drop significantly,” the lawsuit states.

Mr. Musk’s aim is to buy back Twitter at a cheaper price, or pull out of the deal without incurring any fines.

According to the lawsuit, billionaire Musk’s “market manipulation” behavior has caused Twitter’s market capitalization to lose $8 billion since the acquisition was announced.

According to AFP, Twitter’s share price at the end of trading session on May 26 increased slightly to 39.52 USD, but still far from the 54.2 USD/share that Musk mentioned when announcing the acquisition. .

Currently, billionaire Musk has not yet commented on the information.