Musk sells $6.9bn of Tesla shares ahead of Twitter trial

Tesla boss Elon Musk has sold 7.9m shares in the electric maker in case he loses a legal battle with Twitter and ends up having to buy the social media platform.

According to regulatory filings, the $6.9bn sale took place after Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting last week.

Musk is set to face Twitter in court after trying to back out of a $44bn deal to buy the company in a dispute over spam accounts.

Musk said on Twitter: "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."

AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson said: "Tesla shareholders may well be seething at Elon Musk’s latest share sale, no doubt arguing they didn’t sign up to such erratic behaviour. To be fair, they have every right to be furious.

"Musk may argue it is better to have the readies at hand in case he needs to cough up for Twitter.

"If he were to lose the legal battle with Twitter and not have funds available to pay the bill, the market would assume he would then have to sell Tesla shares and the stock could plummet.

"However, whether he sold now or down the line, the whole episode is still very annoying to Tesla investors. Shareholder would expect the value of their investment to be influenced by sales of electric vehicles and battery storage systems, not the fortunes of an entirely separate company.

"You could argue that Musk might buy back the Tesla shares if he doesn’t have to shell out for Twitter, but whatever happens it is another black mark against the entrepreneur."