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Elon Musk agrees to new tweeting rules with SEC

Tesla CEO will need lawyers to sign off on social media posts regarding the company's current and future plans, its financial performance and other matters.


The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, have come to a more detailed agreement regarding tweets which could affect the automaker's share price.

If the deal is approved a judge, Musk will need to "obtain the pre-approval of an experienced securities lawyer" before tweeting about Tesla's finances; potential mergers, joint ventures or acquisitions; previously unpublished sales, production, delivery or financial numbers; new unrelated business ventures; or a change to the company's board, financial instruments or ownership.

The latest agreement comes after the SEC took the Tesla boss to court for contempt of court in February over tweet from Musk, which claimed Tesla "will make around 500k [cars] in 2019", or 100,000 more than officially forecast.

An interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, where Musk said he does "not respect the SEC" and flippantly stated the company might "make some mistakes" regarding which tweets are vetted, was included as part of the SEC's filing.

Musk had previously been critical of the SEC and called it the "Shortseller Enrichment Commission".

The outspoken CEO first ran afoul of the SEC when he tweeted in August 2018: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."

It later emerged Musk only had conversations with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund regarding the matter. By the end of the month, Tesla officially abandoned the idea of going private.

As a result, the SEC sued Musk and Tesla. Before the case could go to trial, they agreed to pay a fine of US$20 million each.

Additional remedies included adding two extra members to Tesla's board, Musk stepping down as chairman of the company, and having potentially market-moving tweets vetted by legal counsel.

Unlike the recently reached agreement, the wording around which tweets needed to be approved was vague and open to interpretation.

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