Elon Musk is facing a lawsuit from a small group of Twitter shareholders who are claiming he is manipulating the social media firm’s stock.
The complaint filed in a San Francisco federal district court reveals that shareholders believe Musk’s behavior and comments about his acquisition not moving forward are driving Twitter’s stock down.
“Musk proceeded to make statements, send tweets, and engage in conduct designed to create doubt about the deal and drive Twitter’s stock down substantially in order to create leverage that Musk hoped to use to either back out of the purchase or re-negotiate the buyout price,” the complaint reads.
This comes in violation of the California Corporations Code according to the filing.
Although Twitter’s shares have certainly been volatile, there may not be a clear-cut case of Musk attempting to manipulate the stock market. Earlier today, Twitter was trading just below $40, which sows doubt into Musk’s deal to purchase the company for $54.20.
In an attempt to keep Musk from potentially decreasing the deal, the complaint is requesting for injunctive relief which could force the Tesla CEO to move forward with the current asking price.
