A U.S. federal court in San Francisco has found Elon Musk liable for intentionally driving down Twitter's (now renamed Twitter X) stock price during his 2022 acquisition of the company, thus "misleading investors." However, the jury dismissed the fraud charge that Musk "conspired" to mislead investors. The lawsuit, filed before Musk took over Twitter, required the jury to determine whether two tweets Musk posted in May 2022, and his remarks on a related podcast, constituted "intentional fraud against Twitter shareholders." The nine-member jury, after nearly four days of deliberation, ruled that Musk was responsible for "misleading investors" with the two tweets, but his remarks on the podcast were not misleading, and he did not intentionally "conspire" to defraud investors. This verdict is a rare defeat for Musk, and his legal team has indicated they will appeal. Musk announced his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in April 2022 and terminated the agreement on July 8. Twitter sued Musk on July 12, accusing him of refusing to fulfill his contractual acquisition obligations, causing Twitter significant losses. (Reuters)