Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sold nearly 8 million shares of Tesla, raising almost $6.9 billion in recent days according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission late on Tuesday, Aug. 9.
The sales came as Musk tries to wriggle out of his $44 billion acquisition deal for Twitter (TWTR).
They were conducted in the days immediately after Musk led a raucous 90-minute talk and question and answer period with Tesla shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Austin, Texas on Aug. 4 at which he appeared to still be interested in the social media company.
Last month, Musk said he wouldn't go through with the Twitter deal, claiming the company had failed to provide him with accurate information about the number spam and bot accounts that operate on the social media site.
Musk himself is one of the most widely followed users on Twitter, with more than 100 million followers.
At the annual meeting, Musk told shareholders that he only holds stock in two companies: Tesla and Twitter.
"I have to be a little careful about what I say about Twitter cause there’s like this , you know, lawsuit and stuff," Musk said at the shareholder meeting. "I do use twitter a lot. It’s not like I’m randomly acquiring companies."
He added that "I think in the case of Twitter since I use it a lot, shoot myself in the foot a lot, dig my grave etc. I do understand the product quite well so I think I’ve got a good sense of where to point the engineering team at Twitter to make it radically better."
A Delaware judge hearing lawsuits that have grown out of Musk's attempt to get out of the deal refused to delay the case until next year, setting a five-day trial set to start on Oct. 17.
