1. It wasn't irrelevant, it greatly affected the stock price. 2. He has been doing this shit for long, it is time to teach him a lesson.
There is a multi billion dollar move because of the tweet and you call that irrelevant? You clearly are a big Tesla fan.
There was no secured funding. There was even not a letter of intent or any other written commitment. Musk assumed (wishful thinking) things were OK. That is not the same as secured funding. Even today there still is no written engagement from the Saudi's.
He had funding in the form of a huge fund willing to invest. Where is the manipulation? He did say he was `considering` and shareholders had to vote for it (including the mutual funds, whether for or against it) This is the kind of thing lawyers and judges will have fun, whether a verbal agreement constitutes a "secured" funding source. But to think that the board or shareholders will stop supporting him because of a technicality like this is huge stretch
Well, lawyers will have fun with this but from my perspective, more than a LOI (which is a worthless piece of non-binding paper) the Saudis bought $2B worth of stock. They put some money where their mouth was, skin in the game, to me this matters way more than a 2 page word document
Its also telling that they purchased a stake just shy of 5%. Just so they could avoid having to disclose their stake within 10 days of the purchase (as the SEC requires). To me, this suggests that they want to buy a lot more or it would tip off that there was something going on. Otherwise they would just go ahead and buy the stake they wanted (normally between 5% and 10%)
Some board members were taken by surprise (aka they haven't heard of the plan): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/business/dealbook/tesla-elon-musk-saudi-arabia.html
It took the SEC 3 years to charge Elizabeth Holmes at Theranos with anything. Now that was fraud. So if history is any guide... by the the time Elon is called to the floor on this... the Justice Department will need an extradition treaty with Mars. And you know what that means.... .....a contract with SpaceX.
This is: 1. At least 1 day late. They have to file in 4 business days, ended yesterday. 2. Their statement is not backing Elon: " The special committee has not yet received a formal proposal from Mr. Musk regarding any Going Private Transaction nor has it reached any conclusion as to the advisability or feasibility of such a transaction." It only explains the comittee formed, but says nothing about funding and specially already having secured it. This is a CYA filing by the board...