Some shareholders say Mr Musk’s off-the-cuff posts on Twitter – he once drew comparisons between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hitler – have already hurt Tesla.
“The guy has said a lot of controversial things,” said Kristin Hull, founder and chief executive of Nia Impact Capital, a fund in Oakland, Calif., that invests in companies with positive social impact. “Are they distracting? Are they confusing? Have they interfered with stock values ​​through their tweets? Absolutely.”
How Elon Musk Bought Twitter
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A blockbuster deal. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, downplayed an impossible attempt by the famed business billionaire to buy Twitter for around $44 billion. Here’s how the deal unfolded:
introductory Offer. Mr Musk made an unsolicited bid of more than $40 billion for the influential social network, saying he wants to make Twitter a private company and that he wants people to be able to talk more freely on the service.
With Mr Musk becoming the owner of Twitter, “it only gets bigger,” said Ms Hull. Nia recently sold most of its shares in Tesla, she said, because the fund was dissatisfied with the company’s response to allegations of racism at its factory in Fremont, Calif.
Mr. Musk’s ownership of Twitter may alienate some potential Tesla buyers. Among people considering buying an electric car, Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly two to one, according to Morning Consult, a research firm. But the Democrats are also the group most likely to open Twitter to extremist views or misinformation if Mr. Musk, in the name of free speech, is open to misinformation.
The Twitter acquisition could accelerate Mr Musk’s investigation by stock market regulators. He has been sued by a Twitter shareholder who accused him of missing a regulatory deadline to report that he had acquired a 5 percent stake in the platform.
The lawsuit, filed by Block & Levitan, a Boston law firm, claims Mr Musk saved himself tens of millions of dollars by waiting six days before the deadline to disclose his stake. The suit claims that if his interest was public knowledge, he would have been able to continue buying Twitter shares more cheaply.
Mr. Musk has a long history of conflict with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month he failed to persuade a New York judge to release him from a 2018 settlement with the SEC that requires him to screen his social media posts to the company’s attorney if the statements further affect Tesla’s share price. can increase.
