As Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk tries to take Twitter Inc (NASDAQ: TWTR) private, text messages from 2018 reveal the billionaire entrepreneur's spat with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) after his infamous “funding secured” tweet to take the electric-car maker private.
What Happened: The text message conversations between Musk and Saudi PIF Managing Director Yasir Al-Rumayyan were revealed as part of a filing related to a shareholder lawsuit, according to a Bloomberg report.
Musk in his texts had brought up a Bloomberg article about PIF being "in talks" to take Tesla private, and told Al-Rumayyan that his statements in the article were weak and did not “reflect the conversation we had at Tesla."
"You said you were definitely interested in taking Tesla private and had wanted to do so since 2016," Musk had texted. “You are throwing me under the bus.”
Al-Rumayyan said at the time that the fund had not “received anything” from Tesla and that they could not “approve something that we don’t have sufficient information on.”
See Also: How To Buy Tesla (TSLA) Stock
Why It Matters: Musk had taken a stance that the article published by Bloomberg made him look like a liar.
“It is filled with equivocation and in no way indicates the strong interest you conveyed in person,” Musk text's to Al-Rumayyan read.
Musk has taken the line that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to support his attempt to take Tesla private in relation to a lawsuit filed by the company’s shareholders, who claim they lost billions of dollars due to the 2018 “funding secured” tweet.
This month, Musk approached Twitter's board with an offer of $54.20 per share to take the company private.
The social media platform’s board opted to adopt a maneuver known as a “poison pill” to defend Twitter from being taken over.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Twitter officials are reconsidering Musk’s proposal, but added that it was "still far from guaranteed."
Price Action: On Friday, Tesla shares closed 0.4% lower at $1,005.05 in the regular session, while Twitter shares ended 3.9% higher at $48.93, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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