Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc, sold $6.9 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, saying the funds could be used to finance a potential Twitter deal if he loses a legal battle with the social media platform.
"In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don't follow through, it's important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock," he said in a tweet late on Tuesday.
Musk broke his April 25 deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion in early July. Twitter has sued Musk to force him to complete the transaction, dismissing his claim that he was misled about the number of spam accounts on the social network as buyer's remorse in the wake of the tech stock plunge. Both parties will go to trial on October 17.
"People will see through this poker play that the chances of a deal on Twitter are more likely now," tweeted Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
In other comments posted on Twitter Tuesday, Musk said "yes" when asked if he was done selling Tesla stock and also said he would buy Tesla stock again if the Twitter deal doesn't close.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
