--- title: "Elon Musk Sells Almost $7 Billion In Tesla Shares For Twitter Deal" description: "Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be preparing for the worst, as he might be forced by the court to buyout Twitter after he tried to backout of the deal." date: "2022-08-10" modified: "2022-08-10" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-sells-7-billion-tesla-shares-twitter" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "tesla" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Elon Musk Sells Almost $7 Billion In Tesla Shares For Twitter Deal ![Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be preparing for the worst, as he might be forced by the court to buyout Twitter after he tried to backout of the deal.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Art of the Deal In April, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk [attempted to buy Twitter]() after positioning himself as the [largest stakeholder]() in the social media company. But the whole deal blew up in Musk’s face, and now he’s desperately trying to [back out of buying]() the social media company — while also trying to dodge a $1 billion fine. Twitter isn’t having any of Musk’s noncommittal nonsense though, and [has sued Musk]() to go through with the deal — meaning [if the court rules in Twitter’s favor](), Musk might have to shell out the $44 billion he initially offered to buy the company for. Ouch. Now, Musk is preparing for the worst, as [securities filings]() disclosed this week reveal that the Mars-obsessed magnate has sold off 7.92 million Tesla shares since Friday. That’s about $7 billion worth, [according to *The New York Times*](). ## It's Not Over In a [Twitter thread]() responding to the news, Musk said he’s done selling, and that he wanted to "avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock." When asked if he’d rebuy the Tesla stock if the Twitter deal fails to close, Musk simply [replied]() with "yes." But we shouldn’t take him at his word, because Musk reneged on an earlier promise in April that he had "no further TSLA sales" planned after [selling about $8.5 billion worth]() of his own shares to fund the Twitter takeover. A lot has changed for Musk since then, but a lie is a lie. It’s the latest turn of events for the eccentric tech CEO, whose deplorable behavior during the ongoing Twitter deal — such as [tweeting a poop emoji]() in response to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal — [hasn't gone unnoticed]() in the courtroom, with Twitter lawyers citing the emoji incident as evidence of Musk disparaging its platform. So Musk might have to start tightening up his finances and behavior if he wants to avoid the deal from becoming any bigger of a disaster — but considering he's [throwing around the possibility]() of starting his own social media platform called X.com, he's likely going to keep on being his old self. **More on Elon Musk:** [*Elon Musk Claims Tesla Will Roll Out Electric Semi Truck This Year*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()