Twitter Shareholders Sue Elon Musk For Stock Manipulation

• Twitter shareholders have sued Elon Musk for the manipulation of the company’s stock.

• They alleged that the billionaire is  intentionally passing negative comments about the platform to drive down its stock price.

• Twitter’s value has dropped by more than $8 billion since a $44 billion deal was agreed upon between the company’s board and Musk.

Twitter shareholders have sued the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, for manipulating the price of the company’s stock. The shareholders filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in the federal district court for Northern California, arguing the billionaire intentionally pushed down the company’s stock to secure a better deal.

They worry that Musk’s tricks have worked as the company has lost $8 billion since a buyout was agreed upon last month. The shareholders also claim that Musk was aware of the bots problem and other Twitter issues before agreeing to a deal for the company.

Last week, the Tesla CEO announced that the acquisition deal for Twitter has been put on hold, pending when the company determines the number of bots on Twitter. Although Twitter claims that bot and spam accounts constitute less than 5% of its total users, other sources claim that there could be significantly more bots on the platform.

Read also: Jack Dorsey Leaves Twitter Board After 16 Years

The Twitter shareholders alleged that Musk is only making these negative comments because Tesla is worth much less than it is when they agreed to the deal. Therefore, he is attempting to mitigate the risk to himself by moving the price of the company’s stock down.

Since announcing a deal for the social media giant, Elon Musk’s fortune has also plummeted severely. The billionaire who was worth $260 billion in April is now worth $212 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Follow Naija.fm on our social media handles Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep up with trending news and entertainment gist.