Anyone who has followed Elon Musk in the last few years knows there is no love lost between him and the SEC. His tweets often create controversy, resulting in an increased scrutiny from all kinds of regulatory authorities.
Most recently, he scored an ‘own goal’ by claiming he was buying Manchester United, the renowned English football club. Here’s what he said:
As soon as the public noticed the tweet, MANU shares went up as high as 17% after hours. They closed the next day up 7%.
Did people lose money due to the tweet?
While the SEC considers a lot of things before determining the impact of such information, one basic test is to see if the public was misguided and lost money due to the information that was made public.
Musk’s tweet was posted after the close of regular market hours. This meant most of the traders weren’t actively trading and many didn’t even have the facility to trade after market close.
Having said that, the SEC would still like to have a look at what exactly happened. Must is already embroiled in a legal battle after backing out of his twitter buyout offer. Whether Musk has scored an own goal and whether it will have any impact on the Twitter trial remains to be seen.
Irrespective of all that, this is another own goal that the SEC won’t like one bit. And that in itself is a victory for Musk, who has openly criticised the Securities and Exchange Commission in the past.
