Suddenly, Tesla's Elon Musk is Twitter's biggest stakeholder
San Francisco(AP): Elon Musk has taken a 9% stake in Twitter to become its largest shareholder after raising questions about the social media platform's dedication to free speech.
The ultimate aim of Musk's 73.5 million share purchase worth 3 billion based on the closing price Friday, is not clear. Yet in late March Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers and is very active on the site, questioned free speech on Twitter and whether the platform is undermining democracy.
The regulatory filing Monday says Musk bought the shares on March 14, describing him as a long-term investor looking to minimize his buying and selling of the shares. That means that Musk acquired the shares before beginning his public discourse on the First Amendment and Twitter.
Yet Musk has also raised the possibility, publicly before his massive and loyal Twitter following, of starting a rival social media network.
Industry analysts are skeptical about whether the mercurial CEO will remain on the sidelines for long.
We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter," Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a client note early Monday.
Twitter's stock surged more than 22% at the opening bell Monday. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk told his more than 80 million followers on Twitter that he was giving serious thought " to creating his own social media platform and has clashed repeatedly with financial regulators about his use of Twitter.
His Twitter stock purchase comes as Musk is locked into a bitter dispute with U.S. securities regulators over his ability to post on Twitter. Musk's lawyer has contended in court motions that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is infringing on the Tesla CEO's First Amendment rights.
In October of 2018, Musk and Tesla agreed to pay 40 million in civil fines and for Musk to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having the money to take Tesla private at 420 per share.
The funding was far from secured and the electric vehicle company remains public, but Tesla's stock price jumped. The settlement specified governance changes, including Musk's ouster as board chairman, as well as pre-approval of his tweets. The SEC brought a securities fraud charge, alleging that Musk was manipulating the stock price with his posts.
Musk's lawyer is now asking a U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan to throw out the settlement, contending that the SEC is harassing him and infringing on his First Amendment rights.
Early in March, Musk asked Judge Alison Nathan to nullify an SEC subpoena and throw out the settlement agreement. His lawyer, Alex Spiro, said the SEC has used the court agreement to trample on Mr. Musk's First Amendment rights and to impose prior restraints on his speech.
The SEC responded in a court motion, saying it has legal authority to subpoena Tesla and Musk about his tweets, and that Musk's move to throw out the settlement is not valid.
The SEC disclosed that it is investigating Musk's Nov. 6, 2021 tweets that asked followers whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stake. The commission confirmed that it issued administrative subpoenas while investigating whether Musk and Tesla are complying with disclosure controls in the 2018 agreement.
The commission also is investigating whether Tesla described accurately in public filings with the agency whether it complied with the controls.
The commission maintains that the subpoenas were lawful, and that Musk isn't following proper legal procedure to challenge them. SEC attorney Melissa Armstrong called Musk's challenge frivolous, and pointed out that Musk and Tesla agreed to have his tweets pre-approved by other company officials.
Courts have long recognized that congress has vested the SEC with broad authority to conduct investigations into possible violations of federal securities laws and to demand production of evidence relevant to such investigations,' Armstrong wrote.
The subpoenas, issued under seal, come from a formal order by the commission authorizing the investigation. They seek all written communications concerning the Nov. 6 tweets and whether they were shown to Tesla lawyers for pre-approval.
Musk attorney Spiro has asked for verbal arguments in the case.
Musk's revelation about his stake in Twitter shares comes two days after Tesla Inc. posted first-quarter delivery numbers. While the company delivered 310,000 vehicles in the period, the figure was slightly below expectations.
Shortly after the November tweets about the Tesla stock sale Musk began selling off shares, and he wrote on Twitter that the sale would go to pay tax obligations on stock options. Analysts estimate his tax obligation at 10 billion to 15 billion. But some of the money could have been used to buy the Twitter stake.
So far he has sold more than 15 million shares worth roughly 16.4 billion. With some sales in late December, Musk is close to selling 10%.
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Vinod Tawde seeks apology from Kharge, Rahul through legal notice, warns of defamation lawsuit
Cash-for-vote row
New Delhi, Nov 22: BJP leader Vinod Tawde has demanded an apology from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for making "false and baseless" allegations against him in the cash-for-votes incident in Maharashtra, saying if they don't he would sue them for defamation.
Tawde was accused by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, a regional party, of distributing Rs 5 crore to woo voters, with its members barging into a hotel room on November 19 in a Mumbai suburb, where the BJP leader was present.
The former Maharashtra minister and BJP national general secretary claimed innocence, saying the alleged amount was not recovered in the probe by the Election Commission and police.
"The Congress only believes in spreading lies, and this incident is a proof of the party's low level politics to dent me and my party's image," Tawde said.
The two Congress leaders and the party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate seized on the row to accuse the BJP of using money power to influence the November 20 assembly polls in the state.
The legal notice sent to the three claimed that they were aware that they were pushing a "totally false story fabricated" by them.
"You all have deliberately, mischievously with the sole intention of damaging the reputation of our client intentionally fabricated the story distribution of money. You all have published false, baseless allegations against our client on various media for tarnishing his image in the eyes of right thinking people in the society," the notice read.
The Congress leaders were in a "great hurry" to damage Tawde's reputation, they did not bother to check the fact and or despite knowing the entire fact they made the false, baseless allegations, it said.
"The entire imputation made by you all are totally false, baseless, malicious and mala fide and as our client is in no way involved in any such illegal activity and as a responsible office bearer of the national political party he is aware of his duties," it added.
The notice demanded an "unconditional apology" to Tawde within 24 hours from the time the receipt of the notice, which was sent on November 21, and published in newspapers and X.
If they do not offer apology, then Tawde will initiate criminal proceedings under Section 356, which covers defamation, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and also civil proceedings for the damages of Rs 100 crore against the three Congress leaders, the notice said.
