A U.S. jury ruled that Musk intentionally misled company shareholders and suppressed the stock price before acquiring Twitter

According to CNN, a jury in California largely supported the claims of Twitter (now rebranded as X) shareholders on Friday, who accused billionaire Musk of making false statements before acquiring the social media company for $44 billion in 2022 and intentionally driving down the company's stock price. However, the jury did not find that Musk was involved in an overall scheme to defraud investors.

This ruling concludes a civil class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by a group of Twitter shareholders in October 2022—just weeks before Musk officially took over the company. During the weeks-long trial, Musk was forced to testify in his defense. Musk initially agreed to acquire Twitter in April 2022 but attempted to back out of the deal in the following months, ultimately completing the acquisition.

According to estimates from the plaintiffs' attorneys, the jury's awarded damages are expected to be around $2.5 billion, with the exact amount depending on the final number of people who apply to join the class action. Musk's lawyers stated that Musk plans to appeal the ruling. His law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, noted that Musk has successfully appealed in other unrelated cases in Texas and Delaware recently.