Elon Musk says SpaceX shares; SAN FRANCISCO – Elon Musk told jurors on Monday. That he is certain he block financial support from Saudi Arabian investors in 2018. To take over his electric car maker Tesla Inc. Is privately held and may even have use its stake in the rocket company SpaceX to finance a buyout.
At the trial in federal court in San Francisco, the billionaire. Who said he was try from lack of sleep, spoke quietly and calmly during about five hours of testimony.
Elon Musk says SpaceX shares; It was only with the SpaceX stock that I felt the financing was secure” for the purchase. He told the jury, referring to the aerospace company of which he is CEO. He later added that he decided not to take Tesla private. Because he lacked the support of some investors and wanted to avoid a lengthy process.
Musk defends claims he misle investors in a tweet on August 7, 2018. Saying he had “secured financing” to take Tesla private at $420 per share. That “investor support has been confirm.”
The trial will test Musk’s tendency to tweet his sometimes irreverent views. When he can be held accountable for crossing the line.
Tesla’s stock price rose after Musk’s tweet in 2018, then fell when it was reveal. That the buyout would not take place. Investors say they lost millions of dollars as a result.
Elon Musk says SpaceX shares; Musk told the investors’ lawyer, Nicholas Porritt, that on July 31, 2018. He met with representatives of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund at Tesla’s Fremont, California factory.
He acknowledged that no takeover price had been discusse. But said Saudi representatives had made it clear that they would take the necessary steps to block the takeover.
According to Musk, this never materialized because the fund’s banker, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, later backed out of the commitment.
“I was very upset because when we met, he was clearly in favor of taking Tesla private, and now he seemed to be backing off,” Musk said.
Al-Rumayyan’s lawyers did not immediately return a request for comment.
Porritt later told the court that written evidence did not support Musk’s claim about the Saudis’ original intentions. Said the minutes of the meeting showed the Saudis wanted to know more about what Musk was thinking.
Musk later testified that he sold his SpaceX stake to fund the going-private deal. While he sold some of his Tesla stake to finance his bid to take Twitter private last year.
SpaceX “serves as the backbone of the American space program and is a very valuable company,” Musk said. Addressing the jurors, he added: “It’s important that the jury knows. That my SpaceX stock alone would have secured the funding. It’s very important.”
Musk is expect to continue his third day of testimony on Tuesday.
A nine-person jury will decide whether Tesla’s CEO Artificially Inflated the company’s stock price. By raising the prospect of a buyout, and if so, by how much.
Musk said that when he tweet about the funding, he said he “didn’t say it was going to happen. He said I was thinking about it” and that it was his “opinion” that the funding was guarantee.
US judge Edward Chen ruled last May that Musk’s position was untrue and reckless.
Musk was also sue by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the tweets, resulting in a total settlement of $40 million between him. Tesla and a requirement that Tesla’s lawyer pre-screen some of his tweets.
The SEC alleged that Musk lowered the purported takeover offer to $420 per share from $419 because he had recently learned of “the significance of the higher amount in marijuana culture” and thought his girlfriend would find it funny.
Musk Denied that he thought so.
He began testifying Friday, telling jurors that while Twitter, which he bought in October, is the most democratic way to communicate, his tweets haven’t always had the impact on Tesla stock that he expected.
Current and former Tesla executives are also being charge, who Spiro says had “pure” motives in their response to Musk’s plan.
