Elon Musk sells more Tesla shares worth $6.9bn over Twitter deal

Musk had said in April he would not sell any more of the company’s stocks

Tesla chief Elon Musk has sold 7.92 million shares of the company worth about $6.9bn, regulatory filings have revealed.

Responding to a tweet asking if the shares were sold, the multi-billionaire replied “yes”, adding that the money may be needed in the event he was ordered to close his deal to buy Twitter for $44bn.

“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” the multibillionaire tweeted.

Six forms filed by Mr Musk with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday showed he had sold 7,924,107 Tesla shares worth about $6.9bn with transactions taking place on 5, 8 and 9 August.

Replying to another user on the microblogging platform, who asked the world’s richest person if he would buy Tesla shares again if the Twitter deal does not happen, Mr Musk said “yes”.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief is currently engaged in a legal battle with Twitter after saying he would pull out of the deal to buy the social media company.

The latest sale of Tesla shares comes only months after the multibillionaire said he would not sell any more of the company’s stocks.

He had sold nearly $8.5bn worth of shares in the electric vehicle company in April following his successful $44bn bid for Twitter.

“No further TSLA sales planned after today,” Mr Musk had said in a reply to a Twitter user following the sales on 29 April.

After agreeing to the deal initially, the multibillionaire then terminated it and was later sued by Twitter to complete the sale.

The Tesla chief claimed Twitter failed to provide adequate data on the number of fake, or “spam bot” accounts on the social media platform, and that the company breached its obligations under the deal by firing top managers.

Twitter sued the multibillionaire for violating the deal and asked the court to order Mr Musk to complete the merger at the agreed price of $54.20 per share.

A US judge ruled last month that the lawsuit against Mr Musk should go to trial in October.

The Tesla chief has counter sued, but details of the lawsuit are unclear at the moment.

Tesla has not immediately responded to a request for comment by The Independent.