ANKARA – Billionaire Elon Musk sold almost USD6.9 billion worth of Tesla stock in a matter of days as a trial looms for the CEO who abandoned a deal to purchase Twitter.
The world's richest man sold 7.92 million shares of Tesla between Aug. 5 - 9 that are worth USD6.88 billion, according to six financial filings revealed by the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Tuesday.
Musk hinted that the amount could be used to uphold the purchase deal if he loses the lawsuit against Twitter.
"Yes. 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," he wrote on Twitter early Wednesday when asked if he was done selling Tesla shares.
The business magnate sold USD8.5 billion of Tesla shares in three days in late July, following Twitter's approval of his purchase offer, according to SEC filings.
Musk also said, via Twitter, he was not planning any additional sales.
Musk's latest move came before his trial begins on Oct. 17 against Twitter.
He proposed buying the social media company in April for USD44 billion, or USD54.20 per share, but then walked away.
After Musk announced on July 8 that he was terminating the deal, Twitter's stock plummeted to as low as USD32.52 on July 12 -- a 40 percent decline from the offer price per share, according to official figures.
Twitter sued Musk the same day to force him to complete the purchase.
While Musk accuses Twitter of failing to provide him information about the number of bots, spam, and fake accounts on the platform, the company dismisses the accusations and claims that the number is well below 5 percent of total daily active users. (Anadolu)
