Musk won, and a four-year shareholder lawsuit against Tesla, Inc. was finally settled.

According to the latest media reports, a jury finally ruled on Friday local time that Mr Musk's tweet about the privatisation of Tesla, Inc. in 2018 had not misled Tesla, Inc. 's shareholders and was not responsible for his losses.

"Thank God, the wisdom of the people has won!" After the jury reached its verdict, Musk wrote on Twitter, "I am very grateful to the jury for unanimously finding me not guilty in the 420 Tesla, Inc. privatization case."

Outside the court, Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, shouted: "the jury was right."

Mr Spiro said Mr Musk did not distort the idea that there was money and that raising the money needed was "not a problem" because Mr Musk's shares in SpaceX could be used to fill any funding gap if needed.

On Aug. 7, 2018, Musk suddenly tweeted without warning that he was considering privatizing Tesla, Inc. at $420 a share, saying that he had "obtained" transaction-related financing and confirmed the support of investors. the only reason for uncertainty is that investors have to vote.

Tesla, Inc. 's share price rose, but ten days later, on Aug. 17, the media said that the funds for privatization were far from certain, and the stock price fell. On August 24, Musk officially announced the suspension of the privatization process.

The sharp fluctuations in the share price caused billions of dollars in losses to Tesla, Inc. shareholders, and in 2021, thousands of investors filed a class action against Musk, accusing him of securities fraud through Tesla, Inc. 's privatisation tweets.

"Securities fraud is tricky."

In a closing statement earlier on Friday, Nicholas Porritt, the lead lawyer representing Tesla, Inc. investors, defined the case as an important test of rules and regulation for financial markets and the wider society.

"the rules that apply to everyone else should apply to Elon Musk," Porritt said. "Elon Musk posted fake tweets that hurt investors regardless of the truth. A lot of harm. "

"the entire corporate American community is watching," he concluded. "

After the verdict, Porritt told the media: "Securities fraud is very difficult and difficult to prove." This is not what we expect from CEOs of public companies. "

According to the report, a juror spoke to the plaintiff's lawyer after the verdict, saying that the case was "disorganized" and that investors who testified during the trial "did not play a role", which is permissible in the US court system.

Another juror said it was difficult to understand some of the financial terms involved in the case, saying "do not understand stocks, do not invest in options."

However, although Musk won the private case of Tesla, Inc., the "easy tweet" still made him pay a high price.

It is reported that he and Tesla, Inc. each paid 20 million US dollars to settle the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit triggered by the case. Mr Musk also had to resign as chairman of Tesla, Inc., but kept his job as chief executive.

It is also worth mentioning that this is Musk's second victory in a civil lawsuit, and in 2019, a jury in a Los Angeles court dismissed a "libel" charge against him after he tweeted a British diver as a "pedophile."

This article is edited from Wall Street News, Zhitong Financial Editor: Chu Yunwei.