$4bn sold in Tesla stock by Elon Musk

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Securities and Exchange Commission filings showed on Tuesday that Tesla chief Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of shares in the electric car company,.

This recent development is coming more than a week after he closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

Musk has been looking for opportunities to pay for the massive deal, for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and earlier sold $15.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla.

On Tuesday, documents filed with the United States SEC indicated that he had disposed of more than 19 million shares, in excess of $3.9 billion.

Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives in late October after a drawn-out back-and-forth between the world’s richest person and the influential social media company.

The billionaire initially tried to withdraw from the deal after his unsolicited offer was accepted in April.

In July, he said he was canceling the contract because Twitter had misled him over the number of fake “bot” accounts, allegations rejected by the company.

After Musk sought to terminate the sale, Twitter filed a lawsuit to hold the entrepreneur to the agreement. With a trial looming, he revived his takeover plan.

AFP