Tech billionaire Elon Musk has suffered a defeat in a lawsuit over his approach to the takeover of Twitter. Jurors concluded that Musk violated securities laws with two misleading statements in 2022.
Mar 21, 2026, 06:52Mar 21, 2026, 06:52
Because that depressed the stock price, he could be required to pay large restitution to then-shareholders, prosecutors in a San Francisco district court said. Musk initially did not comment on the verdict – he could appeal it to a higher authority.
It is still unclear how much compensation Musk should pay to shareholders at the time.Image: AP
The tech billionaire agreed to take over the short message service with Twitter in April 2025 for a purchase price of around $44 billion. But a little later he claimed that Twitter had many more automated bot accounts than officially stated – and threatened to back down. However, the Twitter board of directors insisted on adhering to the agreement and in the end Musk completed the purchase at the agreed price at the end of October 2022.
Musk could easily afford compensation
Twitter shareholders went to court at the beginning of October 2022 and accused Musk of intentionally manipulating the price with his statements. The jury now also calculated the amount by which, in their view, Musk’s words had artificially depressed the Twitter share price on individual days between May 13 and October 3, 2022.
Twitter no longer exists. Image: keystone
It will be determined at a later date how much compensation Musk should pay to shareholders at the time. It could be hundreds of millions or even a few billion US dollars. His assets, which largely consist of shares in the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the space company SpaceX, are currently estimated by the financial service Bloomberg at a good $640 billion. A payment to Twitter shareholders should therefore be financially easy for the richest person in the world to absorb. (sda/dpa)