Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has sold almost $7 billion worth of his shares in the electric vehicle maker, saying that he would need the money if he loses the court battle with Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). The social network is trying to force Musk to make good on the $44 billion offer he made to buy it after he tried to walk away from the deal.
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Several financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission night revealed that Musk had sold 7.92 million shares of Tesla for about $6.88 billion. Those transactions, which were revealed Tuesday night, occurred between Aug. 5 and 9 after the automaker's annual shareholder meeting on Aug. 4.
Late on Tuesday, Musk tweeted, "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 didn't say which equity partners might not come through on the deal. However, those lined up to participate in the deal included Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, crypto exchange Binance, and venture capital firms Sequoia, Vy Capital, and the DFJ Growth Fund.
When a Twitter user asked Musk whether he was done selling Tesla shares, he responded with a "yes." Musk also said he would buy shares of the automaker again if he triumphs over Twitter and avoids having to buy the social network.
Earlier this year, Musk told Twitter users that he wasn't planning to sell any more shares of Tesla after Apr. 28. CNBC called attention to SEC filings from that week, which revealed that the Tesla chief had sold a block of shares worth around $8.4 billion.
The Latest On Musk's Battle With Twitter
Musk is dealing with a legal batter with Twitter, which he agreed to pay $54.20 per share or $44 billion to acquire in April. Shares of the social network and Tesla have fallen since that agreement, and then Musk announced that he would walk away from the deal in early July.
The Tesla chief accused the social network of not sharing all the data it had on fake or spam accounts and those operated by bots. Musk claimed Twitter was dramatically understating the number of bots, fake and spam accounts on its platform.
However, Twitter sued him to try to force the transaction to go through at the agreed price. If Musk isn't forced to buy Twitter, he may think about setting up his own social network called X.com.
Shares of Twitter were up more than 3% at midday, while Tesla shares had climbed more than 2%.
