San Francisco International Airport (AFP)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Auto, had asked Twitter to clarify the reasons for the delay in announcing its acquisition of millions of shares.
Musk became a major shareholder on Twitter after buying 73.5 million shares in early April, and two weeks later he submitted an offer to acquire the site. Following this he signed a $ 44 billion deal to buy the San Francisco-based company, but he gave mixed signals about his commitment to the deal. The Securities and Exchange Commission asked Musk in a letter to explain why he did not disclose the increase in his Twitter shares within the required ten days, especially if he planned to buy the company.
“Your response, among other things, should be to respond to your recent public statements on Twitter about the social media site, including questioning whether Twitter strictly adheres to the principles of freedom of expression,” the authority said in a letter to Musk on April 4. Neither Musk nor the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission responded immediately to a request for comment.
The Tesla boss is constantly using Twitter to post issues or controversial tweets about the general public, sometimes just mood swings.
He previously clashed with the Federal Reserve, which took action against him for using social media in a failed 2018 attempt to turn Tesla into a private company.
Musk is also facing a lawsuit filed against him this week, accusing him of lowering Twitter’s share price in order to escape his bid or open a window to negotiate a price cut.
