Elon Musk changes his mind. In April, tweeted that had no intention of selling more Tesla shares. However, in recent days, the tycoon has dumped almost eight million shares valued at just under $7 billion.
Why has Elon Musk sold so many shares of the company he co-founded? To have enough liquidity in case the judges force you to complete the Twitter purchase and some of the other investors participating in the operation do not go ahead.
And why not wait for the judge’s decision to sell (or not) those shares? According to Musk himselfit does to avoid a possible emergency sale of Tesla shares in case the Twitter purchase needs to be completed.
In a second tweet, Elon Musk assured that, if it is not forced to complete the purchase of Twitter, it will again acquire Tesla shares.
Like many other billionaires, it is important to remember that the bulk of Elon Musk’s fortune is linked to the shares he owns of companies like Tesla, not in liquid assets. Therefore, to complete a purchase like Twitter’s, the tycoon needs to resort to financial instruments that provide him with liquidity or simply sell a percentage of his shares.
Elon Musk and Twitter will go on trial in October
Whether or not Elon Musk will be forced to complete the Twitter purchase is yet to be determined. However, the tycoon preparing for that scenario is likely to cause all kinds of speculation., especially among investors. For example: is Musk preparing for that scenario because he considers it quite likely?
The trial between Elon Musk and Twitter will begin in Delaware on October 17 and, according to the schedule announced by Judge Kathaleen McCormick, it will end five days later (October 21). Originally, Twitter was looking for this to take place in the month of September, while Elon Musk tried to postpone it until 2023.
The axis of judgment, let us remember, is whether Elon Musk will be required to complete the Twitter purchase he committed to during the first half of 2022. The tycoon decided to pause and subsequently abort the purchase due to discrepancies over the number of active spam accounts on the platform. Twitter, after this movement, decided to sue the tycoon for breach of the purchase commitment sealed between both parties.