Musk says tweet that cost him $20m was ‘worth it’

Tesla Inc.’s CEO Elon Musk said he was signing off Twitter for a few days, shortly after tweeting that the $20 million (Dh73.45 million) penalty he was given for announcing on Twitter that he had funding to take the electric vehicle maker private was “worth it.”

His sign-off culminated a series of tweets that included an announcement about the release of autopilot drive on navigation.

Earlier this month, a US judge approved Tesla and Musk’s $40 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a probe of Musk’s August tweet citing funding being secured to take the company private. Musk would pay a penalty of $20 million as part of the deal.

The SEC settlement required that Tesla implement mandatory procedures and controls to oversee all of Elon Musk’s communications regarding the company in any format, including Twitter. It said any such written communications that contain information material to the company or its shareholders would need to be pre-approved.

Musk took to the social media service Friday, saying “on Twitter, likes are rare & criticism is brutal. So hardcore. It’s great.”

A Twitter user wrote to him asking: “How about the one that cost you 20M, how was the ‘like’ ratio on that one?”. Musk responded to the tweet with “worth it.”