‘420 price was not a joke’:

Billionaire Elon Musk was forced to deny that his infamous tweet selling Tesla stock for $420 was a marijuana joke as he faced trial for misleading investors.

Musk made headlines in 2018 when he claimed on Twitter that he was considering taking the electric car company private and already had the financing secured.

Skeptics had been surprised by the number 420, as it is a popular street code for marijuana, dating back to the 1970s.

Musk insisted that “$420 was not a joke” and claimed the figure was a “coincidence” rather than a nod to marijuana use.

But taking the dais in San Francisco on Monday, Musk categorically denied that the tweet was an inside joke to marijuana enthusiasts, calling the number a “coincidence.”

It represented the share price at the time plus a 20 percent premium, he said.

The 51-year-old owner of Twitter told the federal court: ‘420 was not a joke. There’s some karma around the year 420, though I should wonder if it’s good or bad karma right now.’

Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer representing Tesla shareholders, had explicitly asked Musk if he chose the 420 figure “because it was a joke his girlfriend likes.”

It is not known why 420 became common slang for marijuana, although many theories exist, including one that California police historically used the number as a radio shortcut for the drug.

Musk is facing a class action lawsuit brought by Tesla investors who allege he misled them with the 2018 tweet because the deal never came close to being finalized.

The post read: ‘I’m considering taking Tesla private for $420. Financing secured.

Musk followed up a few hours later with another tweet suggesting a deal was imminent.

The move threw Tesla into chaos, sending its share price soaring before falling sharply as it became clear the purchase would not materialize.

Musk was quickly forced to resign as Tesla CEO and pay millions of dollars in fines and legal fees.

His claim that the financing for the private move was already “secured” was flagged as specifically misleading.

However, the businessman, who now owns Twitter, testified today that he genuinely believed he had secured financial backing to take Tesla private.

The deal had been made with representatives of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, though a specific amount or price was not discussed, Musk said.

He accused those involved in the fund of ‘backing off’.

Musk insisted in court that he believed he had the financial backing to take Tesla private.

The trial revolves around the question of whether a pair of tweets Musk posted on August 7, 2018, hurt Tesla shareholders over a 10-day period before Musk admitted the purchase he had envisioned wasn’t going to happen. .

On Friday, Musk, who is notoriously combative on the witness stand, told the court that his tweets have little influence on Tesla’s stock price.

He pointed to an incident in May 2020 when he tweeted that “Tesla’s stock price is too high.”

The stock price fell on the day of his tweet, but rebounded to close the year higher than it had opened.

But the lead plaintiff, Glen Littleton, says the $420 tweet caused him to lose more than 75 percent of his investments.

The case centers on a tweet Musk sent in August 2018 in which he claimed funding was “secured” for a deal to take Tesla private.

Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, has argued that the CEO’s choice of words was clumsy, but was not deliberate fraud.

Spiro said: ‘In his hasty and reckless state he tweeted the wrong word choice.

‘In his opinion, financing was not a problem, it was assured.

Musk, pictured in Norway in August 2022, was forced to resign as Tesla’s CEO over the charge.

“But what he said in that tweet was ‘funding secured’ without explaining what that meant to him.”

Tesla shares rose $8.76. or 6.6%, to $142.18 on Monday as Musk’s testimony was underway.