Tesla (TSLA) shares jumped higher Friday after CEO Elon Musk said he was done selling shares of his clean-energy car company after dumping near $4 billion in stock to pay for his $44 billion takeover of social media group Twitter.
Securities and Exchange Commission filings published late Thursday indicated that Musk sold 4.4 million Tesla shares between over the two-day period ending on April 27, just days after inking an agreement to provide around $21 billion in financing for his $54.20 per share offer for Twitter.
"No further Tesla sales planned after today", Musk Tweeted to his 83 million followers last night, although pre-arranged sales are still possible, given the size of the billionaire's equity commitment in the Twitter deal.
In fact, another SEC filing was made public early Friday, showing Musk had offloaded between $4.5 and $5 billion in shares on April 28.
Tesla shares were marked 3% higher in mid-day Friday trading to change hands at $903.85 each. Twitter shares rose 0.6% higher to $49.44 each.
Twitter shares, meanwhile, are still marked some 8.2% south of the bid price Musk unveiled earlier this month as investors continue to question Musk's willingness to close the $44 billion 'take-private' deal.
Securities and Exchange Commission filings published late Tuesday indicate that Musk, by some measures the world's richest man, will be required to pay a $1 billion termination fee if his effort to buy Twitter and take it private fails.
Twitter is also required to pay Musk a similar amount, the filings indicated, although both sides will have the option of walking away if the takeover isn't completed by October 24. Twitter is also able to accept -- but not solicit -- a superior bid to Musk's if one is proposed.
That said, Twitter's value proposition improved modestly with better-than-expected first quarter earnings of 61 cents per share and a 15.4% jump in overall revenues, which topped $1.2 billion.
Twitter also said average monetizable daily active users, its term for the number of daily users who can view ads, rose 5.5% from the December quarter to 229 million, with a 39.6 million gain of U.S.-based users.
