Jury finds Elon Musk misled Twitter investors to lower purchase price

A jury found that Elon Musk's complaints about bots on Twitter ahead of his 2022 purchase were intentionally misleading to shareholders. Jurors unanimously held him liable for two misleading statements tied to the acquisition and rejected two other fraud claims.

The panel tracked five months of stock activity that showed a steep drop after his comments and concluded those remarks were intended to lower the company's value to secure a better deal in his $44 billion takeover. The suit by former Twitter shareholders was filed in October 2022; after a three-week trial the jury deliberated for about three days.

Damages will be determined later; plaintiffs' attorneys said they may amount to $2.6 billion and will be decided after affected shareholders submit claims. Lawyers for Musk are expected to appeal. Monte Mann, business litigation partner and trial lawyer at Armstrong Teasdale, said the verdict reflects how juries are increasingly scrutinizing whether executives' public statements function as dealmaking tools, not just opinions.

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