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 confronted a number of questions about his Twitter takeover throughout his testimony on Wednesday.
• The billionaire was sued by a shareholder over his $50 billion Tesla compensation bundle.
• Musk appeared irritated with questioning and requested, “Are we in the Tesla trial or Twitter trial?”

Even throughout a Tesla compensation trial, Elon Musk could not escape questions about Twitter.

Musk was peppered with questions about his Twitter acquisition, in addition to his persona on the platform, all through his testimony Wednesday in a Delaware court docket concerning his $50 billion Tesla pay bundle. 

“Are we in the Tesla trial or Twitter trial? I’m confused,” Musk mentioned to lawyer Greg Varallo of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, after Varallo requested him a sequence of questions round his function as “Chief Twit.”

“We’re in cross examination in an interesting case Mr. Musk,” Varallo mentioned. “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 going through a lawsuit from Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta over his $50 billion Tesla compensation bundle. In the lawsuit, Tornetta argues that Musk and the automaker breached their fiduciary duties by awarding Musk a pay bundle that was “beyond the bounds of reasonable judgment.” Tesla has argued that the bundle was justified as a result of nobody else may have made the electric-car maker’s worth soar the manner that Musk has. 

Until lately, Musk was additionally going through a lawsuit from Twitter over his makes an attempt to keep away from his committement to purchase the social platform for $44 billion.

During Musk’s Wednesday testimony, which lasted over two hours, Varallo questioned Musk about his function at Twitter, together with his latest comment saying he plans to sleep at Twitter’s headquarters till the firm “is fixed.” The billionaire said he plans to finally convey in another person to run Twitter and mentioned he can be completed reorganizing the firm by the finish 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 mentioned.

The billionaire additionally mentioned that whereas he had brought in dozens of Tesla engineers to evaluation Twitter’s code, it was after work hours and on a voluntary foundation. Experts previously told Insider that Musk’s use of Tesla engineers at Twitter may very well be one other trigger for shareholder litigation.

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

Throughout the trial, Tornetta’s legal professionals have argued that Tesla’s pay bundle has allowed the billionaire to show his focus to different firms, together with Twitter.

The Tesla CEO has confronted his fair proportion of lawsuits and is thought for giving combative testimonies.

At a number of factors, Musk mentioned the lawyer’s questions had been designed to “mislead people.”

“Are you trained as a lawyer?” Varallo requested at one level, after Musk mentioned 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 considered one of 19 witnesses that may take the stand over the course of the week, together with executives who labored at Tesla in 2018, advisors that helped create the pay bundle, and compensation consultants. Tesla has argued that Musk’s 2018 pay plan, which entails a 10-year grant of 12 tranches of inventory choices which can be vested when Tesla hits sure targets, was essential to the carmaker’s success. Tesla shares have soared over 1,000% thus far since the billionaire’s compensation plan was established in 2018.