Elon Musk's early Twitter stock buy under scrutiny | All you need to know
India Today
Companies that fail to abide by rules about reporting significant stock purchases or other acquisitions can be fined up to $43,792 per day.
US antitrust enforcement body Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has started its probe into Elon Musk's initial 9 per cent stake purchase in Twitter, according to Reuters. After the initial stock purchase, Musk, the world's richest man, offered to buy the company for $54.20 per share in cash, which Twitter agreed to earlier this week.
The FTC is looking into whether the Tesla Inc Chief Executive complied with an antitrust reporting requirement when he bought his stake in the social media company in early April, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the situation.
Companies that fail to abide by rules about reporting significant stock purchases or other acquisitions can be fined up to $43,792 per day.
There is little expectation that Musk's potential purchase of Twitter will be rejected by antitrust enforcers.
The focus of the FTC inquiry is whether Musk bought the stake to influence Twitter's management or if he looked to be a passive shareholder, according to the report.
In his April 4 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk characterized his stake as passive. Twitter said it did not have a comment on the report, while the FTC declined to comment.
The FTC protects consumers and competition by preventing anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.
