SEC inquiries show regulator poring over Elon Musk’s Twitter offering

The US Securities and Exchange Commission last month asked Elon Musk how he had disclosed his large stake in Twitter, in the clearest signal yet that Wall Street regulators are backing his efforts to buy the social network. scrutinizes.

According to an April 4 letter, the SEC requested information from Mr. Musk regarding the timing of his disclosure and the nature of the filings he filed.

The regulator asked why it “didn’t appear to have happened within the required 10 days from the date of purchase.”

Mr. Musk announced on April 4 that he had acquired more than 9 percent of the company, a week later than regulations allow.

He also used a submission normally reserved for passive investors. In the meantime, he has submitted a publicly effective takeover bid.

The letter from the SEC’s Bureau of Mergers and Acquisitions focuses on a form investors must submit if they accumulate more than 5 percent of a company.

Mr Musk’s filing announcing his Twitter stake suggested the billionaire had crossed the threshold on March 14, initially on a Form 13G for passive investors rather than the filing for activist investors.

The review comes as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler urges tightening rules on how investors must disclose that they’ve acquired a large stake in a company.

The SEC chief has called for more transparency and earlier this year proposed reducing the maximum time an investor has to disclose that they have taken a significant position.

Over the years, the SEC has repeatedly fought with the Tesla boss.

There has already been an investigation into whether he and his brother broke insider trading rules when they sold shares in the electric carmaker late last year, which Mr Musk has denied.

He’s also fighting regulators in court over his infamous tweet that he secured funding to take Tesla private.

The manner in which Mr Musk disclosed his Twitter stake has also been the subject of several lawsuits from investors.