Multiple foreign media including CNBC reported on the 14th (local time) that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into the tweets of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who broke the Twitter takeover contract.
Musk posted on his Twitter last May that he was holding back the acquisition of Twitter, but let’s take a look at why he didn’t reflect this in the documents submitted to the SEC.
Musk tweeted on the 17th of last month, “We cannot proceed with the acquisition until evidence is presented that the number of fake account users is less than 5%.” Afterwards, inside and outside the information technology (IT) industry, there were speculations that Musk would stop taking over Twitter. The SEC put weight on the phrase “cannot proceed” in Musk’s tweet.
Related articles
In a letter the SEC sent last month, the SEC referred to this phrase as “indicating that it does not intend to exercise its legal right to withhold the completion of the acquisition or to complete the acquisition. It has not been updated.”
13D is a form that must be submitted when an active investor acquires 5% or more of a stake in order to influence the company’s management. Whenever there is a significant change, it should be updated to reflect the contents. However, Musk’s position is that the tweet is not a basis for modifying the 13D form.
