Tesla’s Elon Musk and SEC reach agreement on Twitter use: no punishment, but tighter rules

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the Security and Exchange Commission have reached an agreement about the CEO’s Twitter use. In a record, Elon Musk’s legal team and the SEC issued a movement asking the court to amend the terms of the CEO’s settlement, particularly the sections pertaining to information that are considered material, and so, requiring approval.

The motion comes after Elon Musk’s legal team and the SEC asked the court for an extension to settle the contempt charges filed by the agency against the CEO. The agency took issue with Musk’s tweet back in February 19, when he said on Twitter which Tesla will produce 500,000 cars around this year, echoing an estimate he shared during the Q4 2018 earnings call. The SEC requested the court to hold Musk in contempt for breaking up his settlement with the agency, which necessitated pre-approval of tweets that contain material information.

Both sides faced off on April 4, together with the SEC reiterating its accusations before presiding Judge Alison Nathan. After hearing the arguments from the agency and Musk’s legal team, Judge Nathan ordered the two parties to organize a meeting and send a letter. The judge also told the SEC and Musk’s team to come up with an agreement. “My call to action is for everyone to take a deep breath, put your reasonableness pants on and work this out,” she said.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Based on the motion now filed by the parties, it seems that Elon Musk won’t pay a fine for his February 19 tweet, although the document outlined a series of topics which are deemed material. Following is the section of the joint filing outlining topics that require review and pre-approval.

Potential or proposed mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, tender offers, or joint ventures;
production amounts or sales or delivery amounts (whether real, forecasted, or projected) which have not been previously published via pre-approved written communications issued by the Company (“Official Company Guidance”-RRB- or deviate from previously published Official Company Guidance;
proposed or new business lines which are unrelated to then-existing business lines (presently includes vehicles, transport, and renewable energy products);
projection, forecast, or estimate numbers regarding the Company’s business that have not been previously published in Official Company Guidance or deviate from previously published Official Company Guidance;
occasions regarding the Company’s securities (such as Musk’s acquisition or disposition of the Company’s securities), credit facilities, or financing or lending arrangements;
nonpublic regulatory or legal findings or decisions;
any occasion requiring the filing of a Form 8-K by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, such as:
a change in management; or
a change in the Company’s directors; any executive officer, president, chief financial officer, chief accounting officer, chief operating officer, or any individual performing similar functions, or any named executive officer; or
such other topics as the Company or most the independent members of its Board of Directors may ask, if it or they think pre-approval of communications regarding these additional topicswould protect the interests of the Company’s shareholders; and Jugement chose … the proposed amendment to the Final Judgment is fair, reasonable, and in the interest of the parties and investors because the proposed alterations will provide additional clarity regarding the written communications for which the Defendant is required to obtain pre-approval pursuant to the Final Judgment

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Below is the motion filed by the SEC.

(function() var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “https://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); )();

The article Tesla’s Elon Musk and SEC reach agreement on Twitter usage: no punishment, but tighter rules appeared initially on TESLARATI.

Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buy tickets