Judge Tosses Shareholder Cheating Lawsuit Against Elon Musk

A federal judge has reportedly tossed a lawsuit against Elon Musk that claimed he cheated Twitter shareholders in the process of purchasing the company last year.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit, according to Reuters, because they didn't challenge the fairness of the actual deal, just "wrongs associated with" it.

Plaintiff William Heresniak, a shareholder, was attempting to build a class action around Musk's $44 billion purchase of the social media company last year.

The judge found Heresniak did not show that Musk's belated disclosure of a 9.2% stake in Twitter caused harm to shareholders, nor were they harmed by the deal's closing taking longer than planned.

Earlier this month, Musk named a former NBCUniversal ad executive as Twitter’s new CEO.

Musk spent the months after he bought Twitter slashing staff and cutting costs. The value of the company has plunged as major advertisers pulled back on ad buys.