Elon Musk says $420 price in Tesla buyout tweet was 'not a joke' during testimony

Elon Musk refuted that the $420-per-share price in a 2018 tweet about him potentially taking Tesla private was a joke during Monday testimony.

The Tesla CEO told the court the price was "not chosen because of a joke" and called it a "coincidence" regarding some people using 420 to reference marijuana, Fortune reported. He picked $420, he reportedly said while on the stand, because "there was a 20% premium over the stock price."

"Am considering taking Tesla private at $420," the August 2018 tweet in question read. "Funding secured."

Monday marked the second time Musk has made an in-person appearance in the trial that started last week for a lawsuit filed by Tesla shareholders. In the suit, the shareholders claimed comments Musk made on Twitter in August 2018 about the possibility of taking Tesla private were misleading and caused them to lose money. No buyout wound up occurring.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also launched an investigation and accused Musk of securities fraud, a civil charge he settled in September 2018 "without admitting or denying" the agency’s claim, according to a news release.

In the SEC’s complaint against Musk in 2018, the agency claimed Musk "stated that he rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number’s significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend ‘would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price.’" He made the comment in an early August 2018 email, the SEC alleged. 

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"I don’t know if she found it funny or not," Musk said Monday, according to Fortune. "But the $420 price was not a joke."

As part of his settlement with the SEC, Musk had to "step down as Tesla’s chairman and be replaced by an independent Chairman," in addition to receiving a $20 million fine. Tesla also agreed to a settlement that included the electric vehicle maker having to "put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications" and being required to pay $20 million in penalties, among other things, according to the SEC’s release.

"There is some karma around 420, although I should question if that is good or bad karma at this point," Musk also reportedly said Monday.

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The Tesla CEO previously took the stand in the trial over his 2018 buyout tweets on Friday. 

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
TSLA	TESLA INC.	357.09	+11.93	+3.46%

Tesla is scheduled to put out its fourth-quarter financial results on Wednesday. Earlier in the month, the company said its production for the quarter came in at over 439,700 vehicles and its deliveries were nearly 405,300.