Elon Musk: 'I had no ill motive' in tweet about Tesla buyout
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk returned to the stand for a third day Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit brought by Tesla investors who allege he misled them with a tweet about a deal that never happened, testifying that his intent had been to let his shareholders know he was considering a buyout.
The 51-year-old billionaire resumed — under the friendly questioning of his own lawyer, Alex Spiro — his staunch defense at a trial centering on two 2018 tweets indicating he had lined up the money to take Tesla private.
As Spiro gently prodded him, Musk told the nine-person jury he had stated only that he was “considering" a Tesla buyout but never promised a deal would get done. But, Musk said, he thought it important to get the word out to investors that Tesla might be poised to end its eight-year run as a publicly held company.
“I had no ill motive," Musk said. “My intent was to do the right thing for all shareholders."
While being grilled the day before by an attorney representing Tesla shareholders, Musk at times was combative, indignant and exasperated. Through it all, Musk has insisted he had locked up financial backing for what would have been a $72 billion buyout of Tesla during 2018 meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, although no specific funding amount or price was discussed.
When presented with texts and email indicating that a representative for the Saudi fund had never pledged the money for a full buyout of Tesla, Musk contended it was nothing more than the words of someone trying to backpedal from a previous pledge made in private conversations.
Surfacing while Musk was on the stand Tuesday was his contempt for the attorneys who sued on behalf of Tesla shareholders who owned stock in the company for a 10-day period in...