Elon Musk was recently found not liable in a case regarding his tweet that he would take Tesla private at $420 a share and that he had “funding secured.” In that infamous tweet, he said “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
Adding to that, he then said “Shareholders could either to sell at 420 or hold shares & go private”. He also said, in response to a commenter who worried about loyal investors missing out on the upside, “My hope is *all* current investors remain with Tesla even if we’re private. Would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with Tesla. Already do this with Fidelity’s SpaceX investment.”
In the end, Tesla did not go private, and it didn’t look like funding was ever “secured”, even if Musk thought it could be. And so investors sued, claiming that the untrue tweet led to losses, with the case proceeding after Musk walked abruptly walked away from negotiations with the SEC over the tweets.
That trial is finally over, with Musk having been found not guilty of securities fraud in the class action trial. He celebrated the victory on Twitter, saying:
“Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed! I am deeply appreciative of the jury’s unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case.”
Elon received a good bit support on Twitter after that update. Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, for example, tweeted “Congratulations, @ElonMusk. This latest “shareholder” action against you, for those who don’t follow this issue, is part of a predatory practice by plaintiff’s lawyers who make a nice living suing corporations and owners every time a stock moves in price.”
Similarly, Peter Schiff tweeted “Congratulations. The lawsuit was frivolous and should have been thrown out. It should have been obvious to the sophisticated, high net-worth, experienced investors who sued that buying $TSLA was high risk. They have no one to blame for their losses but themselves.”
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But it wasn’t just on Twitter that Elon got to have some fun after his courtroom victory. He also trolled a few reporters outside the courtroom as his security team escorted him to his car. Watch that incident here:
The media tried asking @ElonMusk questions after the trial so he turned it around on them and asked for their thoughts instead 😂
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) January 25, 2023
As you can hear in the clip, Elon managed to turn the questions around on the reporters and make them look vapid and uninformed. Here’s the transcript of that interaction:
Elon: Were you guys listening? What did you think?
Reporter: Any more comments?
Elon: No, I can’t comment because legal stuff. But I’m curious what you guys think.
Reporter: Uhh, we weren’t listening.
Adding details on another little troll Elon got in during the trial, Louder with Crowder reported: “Throughout the trial, Musk reportedly laughed when the Judge joked about whether it’s “metaphysically possible” for plaintiffs to prove a “material misrepresentation.” He also offered his assistance when the court was struggling with tech issues. Like the helpful little troll he is.”
Hilarious stuff. Elon knows how to troll self-important people, whether reporters, lawyers, politicians, or anyone else, better than nearly anyone. Trump perhaps has him beat, but it’s close.
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
Featured image credit: screengrab from embedded video