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Tesla’s Elon Musk found not liable in trial over 2018 ‘funding secured’ tweets

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Tesla's Elon Musk found not liable in trial over 2018 'funding secured' tweets

A U.S. jury on Friday found Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk and his company were not liable for misleading investors when Musk tweeted in 2018 that he had “funding secured” to take the electric car company private.

Plaintiffs had claimed billions in damages and the decision also had been seen as important for Musk himself, who often takes to Twitter to air his views.

The jury came back with a unanimous verdict roughly two hours after beginning deliberations.

Musk was not present in court when the verdict was read but soon tweeted that he was “deeply appreciative” of the jury’s decision.

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“Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed,” he said.

Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer for the investors, said in a statement, “We are disappointed with the verdict and are considering next steps.”

Shares of Tesla rose 1.6% in after-hours trading following the verdict.

“A dark chapter is now closed for Musk and Tesla,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. Ives added that some Tesla investors feared Musk might have to sell more Tesla stock if he lost.

The world’s second-richest person has previously created legal and regulatory headaches through his sometimes impulsive use of Twitter, the social media company he bought for $44 billion in October.

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Minor Myers, who teaches corporate law at the University of Connecticut and who had previously called the investors’ case strong, called the outcome “astounding.”

The U.S. anti-securities fraud law “has always been thought to be this great bulwark against misstatements and falsehoods,” he said. “This outcome makes you wonder if it is up to the job in modern markets,” he said, adding that Musk himself was likely to “double down” on his communication tactics after the verdict.

Musk’s attention has been divided in recent months between Tesla, his rocket company SpaceX and now Twitter. Tesla investors have expressed concerns that running the social media company has taken up too much of his focus.Tesla shareholders claimed Musk misled them when he tweeted on Aug. 7, 2018, that he was considering taking the company private at $420 per share, a premium of about 23% to the prior day’s close, and had “funding secured.”

They say Musk lied when he tweeted later that day that “investor support is confirmed.”

The stock price soared after the tweets and then fell again after Aug. 17, 2018, as it became clear the buyout would not happen.
Porritt during closing arguments said the billionaire CEO is not above the law, and should be held liable for the tweets.

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“This case ultimately is about whether rules that apply to everyone else should also apply to Elon Musk,” he said.

Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro countered that Musk’s “funding secured” tweet was “technically inaccurate” but that investors only cared that Musk was considering a buyout.

“The whole case is built on bad word choice,” he said. “Who cares about bad word choice?”

“Just because it’s a bad tweet doesn’t make it fraud,” Spiro said during closing arguments.

An economist hired by the shareholders had calculated investor losses as high as $12 billion.

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During the three-week trial, Musk spent nearly nine hours on the witness stand, telling jurors he believed the tweets were truthful.

He said he had lined up the necessary financing, including a verbal commitment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. The fund later backpedaled on its commitment, Musk said.

Musk later testified that he believed he could have sold enough shares of his rocket company SpaceX to fund a buyout, and “felt funding was secured” with SpaceX stock alone.

Musk testified that he made the tweets in order to put small shareholders on the same footing as large investors who knew about the deal. But he acknowledged he lacked formal commitments from the Saudi fund and other potential backers.

The verdict is another victory for Musk and his lawyer Spiro after they won a defamation lawsuit against the billionaire in 2019 over his tweet calling a cave explorer a “pedo guy”.

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TikTok, Meta, X CEOs to testify at US Senate hearing in January

TikTok, Meta, X CEOs to testify at US Senate hearing in January

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TikTok, Meta, X CEOs to testify at US Senate hearing in January

The chief executives of social media companies Meta, X, TikTok, Snap and Discord will testify on online child sexual exploitation at a Jan. 31 U.S. Senate hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Wednesday.

Senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s Democratic chairman and the ranking Republican Lindsey Graham said Discord and X had initially balked at participating and refused to accept a subpoena. “Now that all five companies are cooperating, we look forward to hearing from their CEOs,” they said in a statement.

It will be the first appearance by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew before U.S. lawmakers since March when the Chinese-owned short video app company faced harsh questions, including some suggesting the app was damaging children’s mental health.

Proposed legislation has stalled in Congress that would give the Biden administration new powers to block Americans from using foreign communications technology such as TikTok, which is used by more than 150 million Americans.

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Durbin and Graham said the hearing will allow committee members to press CEOs from some of the biggest social media companies on their failures to protect children online.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron will testify.

“Big Tech’s failure to police itself at the expense of our kids cannot go unanswered,” Durbin and Graham said.

The committee this year has approved a number of bills including one that would remove tech firms’ immunity from civil and criminal liability under child sexual abuse material laws that was first proposed in 2020.

Another would establish a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention and another to modernize investigations and prosecutions of online child exploitation crimes.

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EU Commission lawyers initially opposed warning Amazon on iRobot deal – sources

EU Commission lawyers initially opposed warning Amazon on iRobot deal – sources

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EU Commission lawyers initially opposed warning Amazon on iRobot deal - sources

European Commission lawyers initially opposed sending a warning to Amazon over its $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot (IRBT.O), three people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

The Commission’s legal service did not think a statement of objections regarding the deal was warranted, in contrast with antitrust officials handling the case, the people said. Without such a charge sheet, the deal would have been cleared unconditionally.

The lawyers subsequently changed their mind and backed antitrust officials’ decision to send the charge sheet setting out their concerns, the sources said on condition of anonymity, declining to provide confidential details.

The Commission declined to comment.

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Antitrust officials can override objections from the legal service by either tweaking or narrowing their concerns to get their backing or by appealing to the top officials.

Sources had previously told Reuters the deal would be cleared unconditionally.

The EU competition enforcer sent a statement of objections to Amazon on Monday, narrowing the case to concerns about the deal restricting competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners and dropping initial worries that the deal would strengthen the company’s position as an online marketplace provider.

While Amazon might still gain unconditional approval to buy iRobot, the charge sheet indicates that officials are looking to remedies from the company to address their concerns.

The case echoes that of Google which only won the EU green light to buy Fitbit in 2020 after agreeing to restrictions on how it will use customers’ health-related data, in effect creating a data silo.

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Some of the issues in the Amazon deal are covered in new tech rules known as the Digital Markets Act which sets out a list of dos and don’ts for Big Tech, but antitrust officials do not want those obligations as an excuse to take a more lenient line on the deal, one of the people said.

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After 50 years, US to return to Moon on Jan 25

After 50 years, US to return to Moon on Jan 25

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After 50 years, US to return to Moon on Jan 25

 More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try once again to land a craft on the Moon on Jan 25, said the head of what could be the first private company to successfully touch down on the lunar surface. 

The lander, named Peregrine, will have no one on board. It was developed by American company Astrobotic, whose CEO John Thornton said it will carry NASA instruments to study the lunar environment in anticipation of NASA’s Artemis manned missions.

Several years ago, NASA opted to commission US companies to send scientific experiments and technologies to the Moon — a program called CLPS. These fixed-price contracts should make it possible to develop a lunar economy, and provide transport services at a lower cost.

“One of the big challenges of what we’re attempting here is attempting a launch and landing on the surface Moon for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost,” said Thornton Wednesday at a press briefing at his company’s base in in Pittsburgh.

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“Only about half of the missions that have gone to the surface of the Moon have been successful,” he said. “So it’s certainly a daunting challenge. I’m going to be terrified and thrilled all at once at every stage of this.”

Takeoff is scheduled for December 24 from Florida aboard the inaugural flight of the new rocket from the ULA industrial group, named Vulcan Centaur.

The probe will then take “a few days” to reach lunar orbit, but will have to wait until January 25 before attempting landing, so that light conditions at the target location are right, Thornton said.

The descent will be carried out autonomously, without human intervention, but will be monitored from the company’s control center.

In the spring, the Japanese start-up ispace had already attempted to become the first private company to land on the Moon, but the mission ended in a crash. Israel also suffered a setback in 2019. Only four countries have successfully landed on the Moon: the United States, Russia, China and, most recently, India.

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In addition to Astrobotic, NASA has signed contracts with other companies, such as Firefly Aerospace, Draper and Intuitive Machines. The latter is due to take off aboard a SpaceX rocket in January.

“NASA leadership is aware of the risks and has accepted that some of these missions might not succeed,” said Chris Culbert, the CLPS program manager. “But even if every landing isn’t successful, CLPS already had an impact on the commercial infrastructure needed to establish a lunar economy,” he said.

With its Artemis program, NASA wants to establish a base on the surface of the Moon. 

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