According to legal records disclosed Tuesday, Elon Musk has sold over $7 billion in Tesla shares, amid a high-stakes legal dispute with Twitter over a $44 billion buyout bid.
According to filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, Musk sold 7.9 million shares between August 5 and 9.
“It is critical to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla shares in the (hopefully improbable) event that Twitt
er compels this deal to close and some equity partners do not come through,” Musk, the world’s richest man, said on Twitter late Tuesday.
Twitter is involved in a court battle with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his attempt to back out of the April agreement to buy the firm, and a judge has ordered that the trial begin in October.
Musk has launched a countersuit, accusing Twitter of deception and claiming that the social media network misled him about fundamental components of its business before agreeing to a $44 billion takeover.
Musk sold approximately $8.5 billion in shares in the electric vehicle in April as he prepared to finance the Twitter deal. “No further TSLA sales planned after today,” he tweeted at the time.