Elon Musk Had ‘Handshake Agreement’ To Take Over Tesla Before Tweeting In 2018, Former Assistant Says
Elon Musk’s former chief of staff on Wednesday testified that the billionaire believed he had a “handshake agreement” to take Tesla private in 2018 just before he tweeted that he had enough money. key to an aborted acquisition is still haunting him in a high-profile trial.
Sam Teller, who worked closely with Musk from 2014 to 2019, detailed a series of meetings his former boss held with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. His remarks made in testimony also shed light on the quirks of a billionaire executive Teslarocket ship manufacturer space and Twitter.
Among other things, Teller said he sometimes has to “soften” Musk’s blunt emails. Teller attributed Musk’s rude behavior to Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism that Musk admitted to having during his May 2021 television appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
Teller’s testimony came on the ninth day of the trial triggered by a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Tesla shareholders alleging that Musk misled them with tweets in August 2018. 2018. In tweets, Musk said he locked up the money to acquire the electric carmaker, ending its eight-year history as a publicly held company. The case is expected to be turned over to a nine-person jury on Friday.
Musk, 51, spent most of his roughly eight hours on the witness stand earlier in the trial asserting that he had good cause to disclose that he had “financially secured” the acquired Tesla in a tweet August 7, 2018 for $420 (approximately Rs. Negotiable Rs 0.34,400) – a price that values the electric carmaker at $72 billion (approximately Rs 5,89,300). ) at that time.
Teller was subpoenaed by Musk’s lawyers on Wednesday to try to substantiate and build on the billionaire’s testimony.
During the last five meetings held with the Saudi fund that began in January 2017, Teller said Musk grew more and more excited as he discussed privatizing Tesla with Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi fund, at the meeting on July 31, 2018.
Although specific funding amounts were discussed, Teller recalled that Musk pointed out to al-Rumayyan that privatizing Tesla would be expensive.
“Yasir said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we have a lot of money,’” Teller said.
As he watched the two men happily conclude their meeting, Teller said, “In my opinion, they’ve made a handshake agreement to proceed” to Tesla’s privatization.
A week later, Musk wrote on Twitter that he had money to buy back shortly after it was announced that the Financial Times was about to publish a story revealing that the Saudi fund had purchased a 5% stake in Tesla – a share that he know but don’t know. has been publicly announced.
Amid widespread confusion over whether Musk’s Twitter account was hacked or if he was joking, hours later Musk posted another tweet suggesting an impending deal.
The prospect of Tesla stock being sold sent the stock soaring over a 10-day period as a shareholder lawsuit led to the current trial. Shares fell after Musk rescinded his proposal to go private, resulting in billions of dollars in losses, based on estimates provided in testimony by an economist hired by shareholder attorneys. to act as an expert witness in court.
After the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Musk of misleading tweets, he and Tesla reached a $40 million (about Rs 300 crore) settlement in September 2018 without admitting it. misbehavior. US District Judge Edward Chen, who is presiding over the current trial, has also declared Musk’s tweets untrue, for jurors to decide if he posted them recklessly. .
In his testimony, Teller revealed that Musk doesn’t like anyone filtering his information. “He’s the type of CEO who likes to absorb his communications,” says Teller.
Even so, Teller likens his job to an air traffic controller who faces “a lot of problems” to deal with. 2019. “I’m pretty tired and it’s time to do something else,” says Teller.
