Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, May 09, 2025

Questions about Elon Musk's Twitter takeover bleed into his pay-package trial, annoying Musk: 'Are we in the Tesla trial or Twitter trial?'

Questions about Elon Musk's Twitter takeover bleed into his pay-package trial, annoying Musk: 'Are we in the Tesla trial or Twitter trial?'

Elon Musk faced several questions about his Twitter takeover during his testimony on Wednesday. The billionaire was sued by a shareholder over his $50 billion Tesla compensation package. Musk appeared annoyed with questioning and asked, "Are we in the Tesla trial or Twitter trial?"
Even during a Tesla compensation trial, Elon Musk couldn't escape questions about Twitter.

Musk was peppered with questions about his Twitter acquisition, as well as his persona on the platform, throughout his testimony Wednesday in a Delaware court regarding his $50 billion Tesla pay package.

"Are we in the Tesla trial or Twitter trial? I'm confused," Musk said to lawyer Greg Varallo of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, after Varallo asked him a series of questions around his role as "Chief Twit."

"We're in cross examination in an interesting case Mr. Musk," Varallo said. "So when your lawyer wants to make an objection, he has the right to do it. Sadly, you don't, but I suspect he will if he doesn't like the question."

Musk is facing a lawsuit from Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta over his $50 billion Tesla compensation package. In the lawsuit, Tornetta argues that Musk and the automaker breached their fiduciary duties by awarding Musk a pay package that was "beyond the bounds of reasonable judgment." Tesla has argued that the package was justified because no one else could have made the electric-car maker's value soar the way that Musk has.

Until recently, Musk was also facing a lawsuit from Twitter over his attempts to avoid his committement to buy the social platform for $44 billion.

During Musk's Wednesday testimony, which lasted over two hours, Varallo questioned Musk about his role at Twitter, including his recent comment saying he plans to sleep at Twitter's headquarters until the company "is fixed." The billionaire said he plans to eventually bring in someone else to run Twitter and said he would be finished reorganizing the company by the end of the week.

"There's an initial burst of activity needed post acquisition to reorganize the company, but then I will reduce my time [committement] to Twitter to find somebody else to run Twitter over time," Musk said.

The billionaire also said that while he had brought in dozens of Tesla engineers to review Twitter's code, it was after work hours and on a voluntary basis. Experts previously told Insider that Musk's use of Tesla engineers at Twitter could be another cause for shareholder litigation.

"[It was] like if you could help me evaluate Twitter engineering that would be that would be appreciated," Musk said.

Throughout the trial, Tornetta's lawyers have argued that Tesla's pay package has allowed the billionaire to turn his focus to other companies, including Twitter.

The Tesla CEO has faced his fair share of lawsuits and is known for giving combative testimonies.

At several points, Musk said the lawyer's questions were designed to "mislead people."

"Are you trained as a lawyer?" Varallo asked at one point, after Musk said he had agreed to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission "under duress," which he had deemed "not valid as a foundation of law."

"I have some familiarity with the legal system," Musk joked. "If you're in enough lawsuits you pick up a few things along the way."

Musk is one of 19 witnesses that will take the stand over the course of the week, including executives who worked at Tesla in 2018, advisors that helped create the pay package, and compensation experts. Tesla has argued that Musk's 2018 pay plan, which involves a 10-year grant of 12 tranches of stock options that are vested when Tesla hits certain targets, was necessary to the carmaker's success. Tesla shares have soared over 1,000% to date since the billionaire's compensation plan was established in 2018.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Historic Papal Conclave Set to Commence in Rome
Huge Copper, Gold, and Silver Discovery in Argentina and Chile — But the Profits Go Abroad
Prince Harry is pleading for reconciliation — but the royals are just as sick of his victimhood as everyone else
The Road to Freedom: She Protested Putin, Escaped House Arrest, and Survived a 2,800-Kilometer Journey
OpenAI's Flip-Flop: No Longer Going Commercial, Back to Nonprofit, After Musk Lawsuit and Backlash
“Trump Supporter” Aims to Bring a MAGA-Style Shift to Romania
First From China: Zhao Xintong Wins the Snooker World Championship
Nvidia Faces Billion-Dollar Losses – Warns: China Is on Its Way to Becoming an AI Superpower
Trump Rules Out Third Term, Names JD Vance and Marco Rubio as Potential Successors
Mexico Says ‘No’ to U.S. Troops: President Sheinbaum Rejects Trump’s Offer to Fight Cartels
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Storms the Map, Wrecking the Two-Party Monopoly
DOGE: Reimagining Government Operations with AI
Common Sense Returns to Britain's Legal System: UK Supreme Court Declares a Woman Is… a Woman
Beijing Says U.S. Is ‘Reaching Out’ for Tariff Talks Amid Soaring Trade Tensions
U.K. Court Rejects Prince Harry’s Final Appeal Over Police Security
Prince Harry’s Heartfelt Outburst Rocks the Royal Family
Trump Shares AI-Generated Image of Himself as… Pope, Prompting Outrage Reaction
Transgender Swimmer Secures Five Gold Medals at U.S. Masters Championship
Prince Harry: “I Want Reconciliation with My Family”
Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has now been officially labeled “right-wing extremist” by the federal office for the so-called “protection of the constitution.”
Amazon Launches Satellite Internet Service Amidst Competition with SpaceX
Transformative Changes in Women's Wrestling: The Rise of WWE Superstars
The Rush to the White Gold: Global Investment Surge in Natural Hydrogen Exploration
This is a day in Spain without electricity and internet
Reform UK Surprises in British Elections, Challenging Traditional Two-Party System
180-Year-Old Christian University in South Carolina Announces Closure Due to Unmet $6 Million Fundraising Goal
Brazilian Woman Jailed for Fourteen Years for Writing “You Lost, Idiot” on Statue During Protest
Trump Administration Removes National Security Adviser Mike Waltz Amid Signal Chat Controversy
Dutch Politician Eva Vlaardingerbroek Receives Spyware Threat Alert from Apple
Paramount Board Considers Settlement in Trump’s $20 Billion Lawsuit Over "60 Minutes" Interview
U.S. Economy Shrink in Trump’s First Quarter as Tariff Policy Raises Questions
Deadline Looms for RTS Meter Replacement: Hundreds of Thousands at Risk of Heating Disruption
Sweden Grapples with Deadly Gun Violence: Suspect Arrested After Three Young Men Killed in Uppsala Hair Salon
Walz Reveals Why Harris Chose Him as Her Running Mate and Reflects on Democratic Losses
Spain Restores Power After Unprecedented Nationwide Blackout
Carney Secures Liberal Mandate in Canada’s Federal Election
Death Penalty Sought as Luigi Manion Pleads Not Guilty in CEO Murder Case
President Trump contacts Jeff Bezos after reports of Amazon considering listing tariff surcharges; company clarifies no such plan for main platform
Spain and Portugal Recover from Massive Blackout
Liverpool Clinches Record-Equalling 20th English League Title Under Arne Slot
Singapore Politicians Warn Against Foreign Interference in Election
Driver Ploughs into Vancouver Festival Crowd, Killing Nine
Depression, Fear of Defamation, and a Tragic End: New Details on Virginia Giuffre’s Suicide
“Sharia for UK, Allah Akbar!”
Massive Explosion at Iran's Bandar Abbas Port Linked to Suspicious Chemical Shipments
Incident Reflection: A Harsh Reality Check
Pakistani migrants to Danish man: “ “We have 5 children while you have 1 or 2. In 10 years, there will be more Pakistanis than Danes here.“
Clashes Erupt in London as Tensions Rise Between Indian and Pakistani Communities
Specialized anti-drone weapons deployed among security personnel Ahead of Papal Funeral
How do you fix this culture?
×