Category Archives: Elon Musk

Elon Musk deposition in Twitter fight rescheduled for first week of October

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Musk to be questioned under oath by Twitter lawyers on 6 and 7 October in preparation for trial over abandoned $44bn takeover

Elon Musk is scheduled to be questioned under oath by Twitter lawyers next month as the social media company prepares for a trial over the billionaire’s bid to walk away from a $44bn takeover, according to a Tuesday court filing.

Musk’s deposition was originally scheduled for this week but sources close to the litigation said on Monday that the timing of the interview was always subject to change given the fast-tracked nature of the litigation. He is scheduled to be questioned on 6 and 7 October.

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Elon Musk to face deposition by Twitter lawyers ahead of trial

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Attorneys are expected to use the interview to try to show that Musk abandoned the deal due to falling financial markets

Elon Musk is scheduled to spend the next few days with lawyers for Twitter, answering questions ahead of an October trial that will determine whether he must follow through on his $44bn agreement to acquire the social platform after attempting to back out of the deal.

The deposition, planned for Monday, Tuesday and a possible extension on Wednesday, will not be public. As of Sunday evening, it was not clear whether Musk would appear in person or by video. Reuters reported the deposition did not happen Monday nor was a reason given for the delay, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.

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Fireball seen over UK confirmed as meteor after day of confusion

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Experts revise initial assumption that sighting was space junk linked to Elon Musk’s satellite programme

A fireball seen over many parts of the northern UK has been confirmed as a meteor after a day of confusion about its identity.

The fireball was visible above northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland as it blazed across the clear night sky just after 10pm on Wednesday night.

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Elon Musk demands Twitter trial delay over whistleblower concerns

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Twitter counters that Musk is using new claims to cover up buyer’s remorse as trial over broken deal set to begin next month

A trial over Elon Musk’s bid to end his $44bn deal for Twitter should be delayed by several weeks to allow him to investigate a whistleblower’s claims about security on the social media platform, Musk’s lawyer told a judge on Tuesday.

“Doesn’t justice demand a few weeks to look into this?” said Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, at a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware.

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Judge orders Twitter to turn over to Elon Musk data from 2021 users audit

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The company had said the information did not exist, but it sampled 9,000 users in order to estimate the number of spam accounts

Elon Musk may get access to Twitter data used in a 2021 audit of active users but other information the billionaire seeks in a bid to end his $44bn deal to buy the company were rejected as “absurdly broad”, a judge said on Thursday.

Twitter must turn over data from the 9,000 accounts sampled in the fourth quarter as part of its process to estimate the number of spam accounts.

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Musk accuses Twitter of deliberately miscounting spam users in countersuit

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Tesla chief says social media company miscounted accounts as part of a ‘scheme’ to mislead investors

Elon Musk has accused Twitter of deliberately miscounting the number of spam accounts on its platform as part of a “scheme” to mislead investors.

The Tesla chief executive made the allegations in a countersuit against the social media company, which is taking Musk to court in an attempt to make him complete an agreed $44bn (£36.5bn) takeover of the business.

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Twitter rejects Musk’s claims that he was hoodwinked

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Twitter rebuts billionaire’s lawsuit and his arguments for abandoning the takeover as legal standoff heats up

Twitter has rejected Elon Musk’s claims in court that he had legitimate reasons to back out of a $44bn deal to purchase the social media platform, marking the latest development in a dramatic legal showdown.

In a filing made public on Thursday, Twitter called Musk’s arguments for abandoning the deal “a story, imagined in an effort to escape a merger agreement that Musk no longer found attractive once the stock market and along with it, his massive personal wealth, declined in value”.

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Musk’s lawyers subpoena big banks for records on Twitter deal

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Billionaire seeks material on how JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs advised platform during negotiations

Lawyers for Elon Musk have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs for records relating to the billionaire’s plan to purchase Twitter.

Musk has requested the banks turn over “documents and communications” relating to how they advised Twitter during negotiations, which Musk abruptly backed out of last month after offering to purchase the website for $44bn in April, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

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Elon Musk denies reported affair with wife of Google co-founder

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Tesla chief rejects Wall Street Journal claims he had affair with Nicole Shanahan

Elon Musk has denied a Wall Street Journal report claiming he had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, accusing the outlet of running “hit pieces” on him and Tesla.

The chief executive of the electric carmaker tweeted on Monday rejecting the claim that he had an affair with Shanahan as “total BS”, adding that he and Brin were still friends.

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Mexico gives Tesla a dedicated lane at the border to speed up crossing into the US

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The exclusive lane, at the remote checkpoint just north of Laredo, Texas, will be for suppliers only, not Tesla owners

Tesla has reportedly gained an exclusive lane at a remote US-Mexico border crossing after Elon Musk recently struck a deal with the “pro-business” state of Nuevo León.

The electric car company’s suppliers traveling from Mexico into Texas can use a dedicated lane to speed up their crossing at the Colombia Solidarity site, Bloomberg reported, a less popular checkpoint just north of Laredo. Tesla relies on at least six suppliers in Nuevo León, which borders the US for about 10 miles and is closer to the car company’s new headquarters in Austin. The lane is for suppliers only, not Tesla owners.

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Tesla sells 75% of its bitcoin as profits slump due to production challenges

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CEO Elon Musk said the cryptocurrency sale was to maximize its cash position only, but prices still slid after Wednesday’s report

Tesla’s second quarter of 2022 came to a shaky end as the electric carmaker reported a drop in profit after it struggled to meet demand due to a shutdown of its Shanghai factory and production challenges at new plants. The company also sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings, leading to a slide in the cryptocurrency price.

Tesla’s second-quarter profit fell 32% from record levels in the first quarter, with the company reporting a $2.26bn net profit on Wednesday.

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Elon Musk under scrutiny once more over Twitter deal

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The SEC has asked the Tesla chief to submit any material aimed at influencing shareholders after it finds issue with previous filings

The US financial watchdog has stepped up the pressure on Elon Musk over his attempt to buy Twitter by asking further questions about his filings during the process.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked Musk why he did not amend a filing related to the deal in a letter sent last month, according to correspondence disclosed by lawyers representing the Tesla CEO on Thursday. The disclosure by Musk’s lawyers also reveals that the SEC has asked the entrepreneur to file any material aimed at influencing shareholders properly, after pointing out an issue with one such filing.

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Twitter sues Elon Musk over bid to exit $44bn takeover deal

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Company seeks to force completion of sale, saying billionaire ‘refuses to honor his obligations’

Twitter sued Elon Musk on Tuesday to force him to complete his $44bn takeover of the social media giant after he announced on Friday he would withdraw his bid.

“Musk’s exit strategy is a model of hypocrisy,” the lawsuit said, accusing the billionaire of making “bad faith” arguments against Twitter and carrying out “public and misleading attacks” on the company.

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Musk muses about Mars and Earth – but stays quiet on Twitter deal

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Billionaire avoids talking of collapse of $44bn deal but talks about colonizing Mars and boosting Earth’s birthrates at conference

Elon Musk reportedly talked about the colonization of Mars and boosting Earth’s birthrates during his keynote address at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley conference on Saturday, but he avoided discussing his attempt to withdraw from his $44bn bid to buy Twitter.

Musk’s talk to close out this year’s edition of the Idaho conference which annually draws tech, media and finance gurus became one of the hottest tickets after lawyers for the Tesla boss filed notice Friday that he was terminating his bid to acquire Twitter. The billionaire accused the social media firm of failing to provide information on bot accounts, among other things, making observers wonder whether he would address such complaints at his speech scheduled for the next day.

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Musk’s withdrawal from Twitter deal sets stage for long court battle

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Analysis: billionaire could be fined $1bn for walking away – and he risks new lawsuits and even his job, experts say

Elon Musk withdrew his $44bn bid to buy Twitter on Friday after a months-long saga that rankled investors and shook the market, kicking off what may be a long legal battle with the company.

The Twitter chair, Bret Taylor, said on Friday that the social media firm would sue in a Delaware court to enforce the deal. The deal included a “specific performance” clause, a provision that may force Musk to buy the company as long as he has financing in place. Musk in May said he had secured financing to complete the deal.

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Elon Musk to hold first meeting with Twitter staff since $44bn bid

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World’s richest person to take questions from employees amid concerns over attempted takeover

Elon Musk will speak to Twitter employees this week for the first time since launching his $44bn (£36bn) bid in April, a source said on Monday, citing an email from Twitter chief executive, Parag Agrawal, to staff.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, and Musk will take questions directly from Twitter employees, the source added.

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Twitter set to comply with Elon Musk demand for data on fake accounts

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Network ready to provide stream of daily data after world’s richest man threatened to pull out of $44bn purchase if Twitter refused

Twitter is preparing to comply with Elon Musk’s demand for data on fake accounts, after the Tesla chief executive threatened to walk away from buying the business if it refused.

The social media company will provide the world’s richest man with access to a stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted every day, according to the Washington Post.

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Elon Musk and Twitter: a timeline of the $44bn deal that threatens to crumble

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It’s been a long and winding saga for the social media company and the Tesla CEO, filled with threats, breaches and ‘poison pills’

Elon Musk on Monday made his most viable threat yet to walk away from a $44bn deal to buy Twitter, accusing the company of committing a “material breach” by failing to disclose the number of bots on the platform.

The letter was published on the website of the US financial watchdog on Monday. He had previously tweeted that the deal “cannot move forward” until the spam and fake account issue had been resolved.

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Elon Musk seeks 10% job cuts at Tesla over ‘super bad feeling’ about economy

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Email to executives also calls for hiring freeze at electric car maker, which has 100,000 staff worldwide

Elon Musk is considering a hiring freeze and job cuts of up to 10% of staff at Tesla because he has a “super bad feeling” about the state of the economy, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

Tesla currently has about 5,000 job openings advertised worldwide, and 100,000 employees. The email was sent to Tesla executives late on Thursday with the subject line “pause all hiring worldwide”, and comes days after Musk ordered all employees to return to the office for at least 40 hours a week or face immediate termination.

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Elon Musk’s return-to-office threat to Tesla staff sparks Twitter spat with Australian billionaire

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Atlassian boss Scott Farquhar says he’d be happy to poach Musk’s employees for remote jobs at his software company, which allows staff to work from home

Elon Musk’s order that Tesla workers return to the office has sparked a Twitter spat with Australian billionaire Scott Farquhar, after the Atlassian CEO suggested he would be happy to poach Musk’s staff for remote working positions.

In a memo sent to staff, headlined “Remote work is no longer acceptble” [sic], the Tesla CEO wrote that “anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours a week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers”.

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