Elon Musk Sells $6.9 Billion in Tesla Shares Ahead of Twitter Trial

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold 7,924,107 shares of his electric vehicle company, worth roughly $6.9 billion. According to SEC filings, the sales took place on August 5, August 8 and 9.

When asked by Tesla investor @SawyerMerritt if he was done selling, Musk replied, “Yes.” He further added, “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.”

Back in late April, after selling off Tesla shares, Musk said “no further TSLA sales planned after today.” But that was before Musk sought to purchase Twitter and then back out of the deal, citing the social network’s failure to be transparent about bots and fake accounts on the site.

But the Musk-Twitter saga will hit a Delaware courtroom in mid-October. For now, it’s unclear how Wall Street will react to the sale.

According to Wedbush’s Daniel Ives, he said, “Musk selling TSLA stock after he said no more sales will lead the Street to focus on chances of Twitter deal happening and Musk preparing cash portion. Big battle in Delaware looming. This stock sale will raise a lot of conversation on Street for bulls/bears in the morning.”

“Musk tweet confirms our thoughts on Twitter. Street will read through this poker move that chances of Twitter deal more likely now,” said Ives.