Elon Musk and SEC in talks to settle lawsuit over Twitter deal

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Musk violated one of the key provisions of the securities law designed to protect shareholders. I am a corporate law/securities lawyer. It is well established law that one has to make a public report with the Securities and Exchange Commission when they have more than 5% of the stock of a public company. When one is doing a public takeover, you time the moment that you go over 5% carefully and after you cross that threshold, there is race to buy as much stock as possible.

Elon Musk ignore this statutory requirement. The court is right that Musk broke the law and has no excuse. By breaking the law, Musk admits that he save himself $150 million in the takeover of Twitter, Inc. See https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220993248
Musk is trying to settle this judgement

Elon Musk and SEC in talks to settle lawsuit over Twitter deal

— CNBC (@cnbc.com) 2026-03-17T19:47:05Z

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/elon-musk-sec-in-talks-to-settle-government-lawsuit-over-twitter-deal.html

Elon Musk is in talks with the ​Securities and ‌Exchange Commission to settle a lawsuit filed by the regulator last year accusing the world’s richest person of violating securities law in the run-up to his Twitter buyout.

In a court ⁠filing on Tuesday, the SEC revealed that it is “engaged in discussions of a potential resolution that would mean further ⁠proceedings might not be necessary” with Musk.

The SEC initially filed the suit in January 2025, and the case is proceeding in a federal court in Washington, D.C. A separate, class-action lawsuit filed by former Twitter investors against Musk is now winding its way through a federal court in San Francisco, with a jury expected to deliberate soon.

Musk, who is CEO of Tesla
and SpaceX, purchased Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and changed its name to X the following year. Prior to the acquisition, he’d built up a position in the company of greater than 5%, which would’ve required disclosing his holdings to the public within 10 calendar days of reaching that threshold. He was late to file that disclosure.

The SEC said in its complaint that Musk’s failure to disclose the stake allowed him to buy shares at “artificially low prices,” putting other investors at a disadvantage.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Elon Musk, US SEC in talks to settle suit over 2022 Twitter disclosures

As a securities lawyer, this case makes me smile. At the very minimum, musk will have to include in all SEC filings a full disclosure that Musk violated the securities laws.

Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are in talks to settle the regulator's lawsuit accusing the world's richest person of waiting too long to disclose his purchases of Twitter shares in 2022.

— Reuters Legal (@legal.reuters.com) 2026-03-17T18:45:21.955Z

https://www.reuters.com/world/elon-musk-us-sec-talks-settle-lawsuit-over-twitter-disclosures-2026-03-17/

March 17 (Reuters) - Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange ‌Commission are in talks to settle the regulator's lawsuit accusing the world's richest person of waiting too long in 2022 to disclose his initial purchases of Twitter, which he eventually bought for $44 billion and renamed X.

In a court filing on Tuesday, the SEC and Musk said ​they are "engaged in discussions of a potential resolution that would mean further proceedings might not be necessary."

Both sides ​asked U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., who oversees the case, to extend ⁠a deadline for scheduling further proceedings to April 1 from March 18.

The SEC declined to comment. Musk's lawyers did ​not immediately respond to requests for comment.

News of a possible settlement surfaced six weeks after Sooknanan rejected Musk's bid to dismiss ​the case, and comes as SEC Chairman Paul Atkins refocuses some of the regulator's enforcement priorities.

A settlement would end often-fraught litigation between the SEC and Musk that began in September 2018 when the regulator charged Musk with securities fraud for saying on Twitter he had "secured" ​funding to potentially take his electric car company Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab private.

Musk is trying to take SpaceX public. Any settlement will have to disclosed both in TESLA's filings and in the SpaceX offering documents