This Isn’t the First Time Musk Has Threatened a Major Corporate Buyout

This Isn't the First Time Musk Has Threatened a Major Corporate Buyout

(USNewsMag.com) – On April 14, Tesla Founder Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter and take it private. The billionaire offered an all-cash price of $54.20 per share, or about $43 billion. However, his latest offer isn’t the first time he has publicly declared he wants to take a company private.

In 2018, Musk tweeted he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share.

Tesla shareholders sued Musk, alleging he committed securities fraud when he made the remarks in 2018. They claim they lost money because the company’s stock trading was halted and then were extremely volatile in the weeks after. The day after Musk offered to buy Twitter, US District Court Judge Edward Chen ruled the Tesla founder’s tweets were “false and misleading.” The judge also ruled that he “recklessly made the statements with knowledge as to their falsity.”

Musk previously settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the tweet. The federal agency accused the billionaire of fraud and he agreed to pay $40 million, put someone in place to review some of his tweets, and take other steps to prevent a similar situation in the future.

Do you think Musk actually wants to take Twitter private, or is he playing games like he was accused of doing in 2018?

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