United News of Bangladesh

More landlords are taking Twitter to court over unpaid rent, this time at the social media company’s headquarters in San Francisco and its British offices — the latest sign that owner Elon Musk's extreme cost-cutting strategy includes simply not paying the bills. Twitter is facing a lawsuit over allegations it failed to pay rent for its head office, according to California court documents. The owner of its premises in central London, meanwhile, said it's taking the company to court over rental debt. Musk is slashing costs after his $44 billion deal last year to buy Twitter left the company on the hook for about $1 billion in annual interest payments. Twitter has already been taken to court this month for falling behind on rent at another San Francisco office. It's the latest legal headache for Musk, who has been testifying in recent days in a separate class-action lawsuit from Tesla investors alleging his 2017 tweet misled them about funding to take the electric carmaker private. The billionaire Tesla CEO's cost-cutting strategy for Twitter also has included gutting the company’s workforce and auctioning off memorabilia and fancy office furniture. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Its communications department was shut down after Musk's acquisition. The owner of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, located at 1355 Market St., is suing the company after it failed to make its latest monthly rent payment, according to documents filed Friday with the Superior Court of California. The company, Sri Nine Market Square LLC, said Twitter “breached the Lease by failing to pay monthly rent and additional rent” for January amounting to $3.4 million. Twitter, which has had a lease for three floors in the building since 2011, had fallen behind on a similar amount of rent in December, which Sri Nine Market Square recouped from a letter of credit that Twitter had put up as a security deposit, the filing said. Read more: 'Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!': Musk tweets After using those funds, the landlord says Twitter still owes $3.16 million in unpaid rent and is seeking late fees and interest plus attorneys’ fees. The social media company still occupies the property, the landlord said. In Britain, the Crown Estate has started court proceedings against Twitter after the company fell behind on rent at its offices near London's famed Piccadilly Circus. The Crown Estate, which owns some of the priciest real estate in central London, said it took action following previous contact with Twitter over the unpaid rent and is in talks with the company but provided no further information. The Crown Estate is a vast property portfolio that includes much of London’s Regent Street as well as the Windsor estate. It's an independently run commercial business, but its profits are used as a benchmark for the funding of the Sovereign Grant, which is the public money that funds the British royal family’s official work.

University of Wisconsin System officials said Tuesday that they will ban the use of TikTok on system devices. System spokesman Mark Pitsch told The Associated Press about the move in email statements. Nearly half of the states nationwide have blocked the popular social media app owned by a Chinese company. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers banned the use of TikTok on Wisconsin state phones and other devices, citing potential risks to privacy, safety and security. The order didn't apply to the UW System, which employs 40,000 faculty and staff, because it isn’t an executive branch agency. UW-Madison, the system's flagship school, has multiple TikTok accounts, including one for the women's volleyball team. Universities often use TikTok accounts as a recruiting tool to connect with high school students. Read more: Making money on TikTok: 10 Best Ways A number of other universities across the country have banned TikTok in recent weeks, including Auburn, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa and Texas. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. It has been targeted by critics who say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location. U.S. armed forces also have prohibited the app on military devices. TikTok is consumed by two-thirds of American teens and has become the second-most popular domain in the world. But there has long been bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation. Read more: List of US states banning TikTok grows

Elon Musk returned to federal court to defend himself against a class-action lawsuit that alleges he misled Tesla shareholders with a tweet about an aborted buyout that the billionaire defiantly insisted Tuesday he could have pulled off, had he wanted. Musk spent roughly three more hours on the stand during his third day of testimony before being excused by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen. It’s unlikely Musk, 51, will be summoned back to the witness stand during a civil trial expected to be turned over to a nine-person jury in early February. Musk, who also owns Twitter while continuing to run Tesla, spent much of Tuesday depicting himself, while being questioned by his own attorney, Alex Spiro, as an impeccably trustworthy business leader capable of raising as much money as he needs to pursue his visions. He testily sparred with a shareholder lawyer, Nicholas Porritt, who had raised his ire earlier in the trial. Read more: Elon Musk rebuffed in bid to move Tesla tweet trial to Texas At two separate junctures Tuesday under Spiro’s gentle prodding, Musk left no doubt about his contempt for Porritt with a remark expressing doubt that the lawyer was looking out for the best interests of Tesla shareholders. The remarks drew a quick rebuke from the judge and were stricken from the record. “It's inappropriate," Chen at one point admonished Musk. When he was being challenged by Porritt, Musk purposefully diverted his gaze from the lawyer and delivered his explanations while looking directly at the jurors sitting a few feet to his right. In another instance, Musk asserted, without elaborating, that a question from Porritt wondering if he had ever caused investors to suffer losses contained “falsehoods." On the flip side, Spiro at one point mistakenly addressed Musk as “your honor" while asking the billionaire how much money he had made for investors during his career. The slipup elicited a moment of levity in the San Francisco courtroom filled with media and other spectators in attendance to listen to Musk, who has become even more famous since completing his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in October. The current trial hinges on whether a pair of tweets Musk posted on Aug. 7, 2018, damaged Tesla shareholders during a 10-day period leading up to his admission that the buyout he had envisioned wasn’t going to happen. The statements resulted in Musk and Tesla to reach the $40 million settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing. In the first of the 2018 tweets, Musk stated “funding secured” for what would have been a $72 billion — or $420 per share — buyout of Tesla at a time when the electric automaker was still grappling with production problems and was worth far less than it is now. Musk followed up a few hours later with another tweet suggesting a deal was imminent. After those tweets, Musk declared Tesla would remain publicly a few weeks later. A month after that, Musk and Tesla reached a $40 million settlement with securities regulators who had alleged the tweets were misleading. Read more: Musk says he can't get fair trial in California, wants Texas Musk has previously contended he entered into the settlement under duress and maintained he never wavered in his belief that he had the money for a deal. Musk spent most of Tuesday trying to persuade the jurors that there was nothing devious about the two tweets indicating he had lined up the money to take Tesla private as the electric automaker was struggling with production problems and was worth far less than it is now. The judge has already declared the jurors can consider those two tweets to be false, leaving them to decide whether Musk deliberately deceived investors and whether his statements saddled them with losses. While being steered by Spiro, Musk told jurors he had stated only that he was “considering” a Tesla buyout but never promised a deal would get done. But, Musk said, he thought it important to get the word out to investors that Tesla might be poised to end its eight-year run as a publicly held company. “I had no ill motive,” Musk said. “My intent was to do the right thing for all shareholders." While being grilled the day before by Porritt, Musk at times was combative, indignant and exasperated. Through it all, Musk has insisted he locked up financial backing for what would have been a $72 billion buyout of Tesla during 2018 meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, although no specific funding amount or price was discussed. When presented with texts and email indicating that a representative for the Saudi fund had never pledged the money for a full buyout of Tesla, Musk contended it was nothing more than the words of someone trying to backpedal from a previous pledge made in private conversations. Not long after Porritt resumed his questioning Tuesday, Musk once again scoffed at the notion that his belief that he had the Saudi funding's financial backing wasn't enough for him to tweet about a potential Tesla buyout. “We are talking about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Musk testified. “They can buy Tesla several times over. This was not a large amount of money for them." Musk also reiterated earlier testimony that he could finance a Tesla buyout by sharing some of his holdings in SpaceX, a privately held maker of rocket ships that he also started. That would be similar to what he did in the Twitter purchase, which led him to sell about $23 billion of his Tesla stock. That's something that Musk said Tuesday that he didn't want to do, but that it showed he had the wherewithal to pull together purchases for expensive deals. Musk's ownership of Twitter also has proved unpopular with Tesla shareholders who worry about him being distracted as the automaker faces more competition. Tesla's stock has lost about one-third of its value since Musk took over Twitter. Despite that downturn, the stock is still worth about seven times more than at the time of Musk's 2018 tweets, after adjusting for two splits that have since occurred. That opened the door for Musk to remind jurors Tuesday that any investor who held Tesla shares in August 2018 would have done “extremely well," had they just held on to the stock. “It would have been the best investment in the stock market," Musk said.

As technicians in a distant control room watch on display screens, an automated crane at one of China’s busiest ports moves cargo containers from a Korean freighter to self-driving trucks in a scene tech giant Huawei sees as its future after American sanctions crushed its smartphone brand. The backbone of the “smart terminal” at the Tianjin Port, east of Beijing, is a data network built by Huawei, which is reinventing itself as a supplier for self-driving cars, factories and other industries it hopes will be less vulnerable to Washington's worsening feud with Beijing over technology and security. The ruling Communist Party is promoting automation in industries from manufacturing to taxis to keep China’s economy growing as the workforce ages and starts to shrink. Its managers say the “smart terminal,” part of Tianjin's 200-square-kilometer (77-square-mile) port, allows 200 employees to move as much cargo as 800 used to. Read more: Huawei launches all-band 5G solution series “We believe this solution in Tianjin is the world’s most advanced,” said Yue Kun, chief technology officer of Huawei’s business unit for ports. “We believe it can be applied to other ports.” Huawei Technologies Ltd., which makes smartphones and is the biggest global supplier of network gear for phone carriers, struggled after then-President Donald Trump cut off access to American processor chips and other technology in 2019 in a feud with Beijing about security. Washington says Huawei is a security risk that might use its access to foreign phone networks to facilitate Chinese spying, an accusation the company denies. The United States and allies including Japan and Australia have banned or restricted use of Huawei equipment by their phone carriers. Smartphone sales outside China collapsed after Huawei lost music, maps and other services from Alphabet Inc.’s Google that handset buyers expect to see pre-loaded. Its low-end Honor brand was sold off in 2020 in hopes of reviving sales by separating it from the sanctions on its corporate parent. Huawei, with a workforce of almost 200,000, has held onto its status as the leading maker of network gear based on sales in China and other markets where Washington has had less success at encouraging governments to shun the company. “Huawei is already a key player” in data networks with a “wealth of knowledge,” said Paul Budde, an industry analyst. The company has created 20 teams to focus on factories, mines, hospitals, ports, power plants and other industrial customers. It says the auto unit has 3,000 people working on autonomous driving and invested $2 billion in the technology in 2020-21. Huawei was an early developer of “smart city” networks for traffic control and police surveillance. Read more: Huawei Bangladesh Academy launched in Dhaka “The big, black cloud here, however, is geopolitics," said Budde. "This will hamper its participation in overseas markets,” he said. “The issues are not technology but are purely political.” American pressure on Huawei spiraled into an international standoff in 2018 after its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, daughter of its founder, was arrested in Canada on U.S. charges related to accusations of violating trade sanctions on Iran. China arrested two Canadians on spying charges, trying to win Meng's release. They were freed in September 2021 after Meng was allowed to return to China under an agreement with American prosecutors in which she took responsibility for misrepresenting Huawei's dealings with Iran. Huawei says its new focus already is helping to revive the company’s fortunes. “In 2020, we successfully pulled ourselves out of crisis mode,” said Eric Xu, one of three Huawei executives who take turns as chairman, in a December letter to employees. “U.S. restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual.” Last year’s revenue was forecast to be little-changed from 2021 at 636.9 billion yuan ($91.6 billion), Xu said. That was below Huawei’s double-digit growth of a decade earlier but an improvement over the 5.9% slide in the first half. He gave no breakdown by business line, but Huawei reported 2021 sales to industrial customers of 102.4 billion yuan ($16.1 billion). Sales of smartphones and other devices fell 25.3% from a year earlier in the first half of 2022 to 101.3 billion yuan ($15 billion). The auto unit, which supplies components and software for navigation, dashboard displays and managing vehicle systems, has played a role in five models released by three Chinese automakers. The ruling party's urgency about rolling out automation has risen as the size of China’s working age population 16 to 59 declined after hitting a peak in 2011. That group has shrunk by about 5%. Its share of the population slid from 70% to 62%. The Tianjin port managers told Huawei they already were having trouble finding and keeping truck drivers, according to Yue. “This can help to address the aging population issue,” said Yue. Yue said Huawei has talked with “people outside China” who might use its port technology, but he gave no details. The annual market for port-related network technology is modest at $2 billion, but global sales of gear to link factory and medical equipment, cars and other devices total $600 billion a year, according to Budde. He said that has the potential to replace Huawei's lost smartphone and other telecom sales, so long as foreign buyers aren't put off by security concerns. The Tianjin port's fleet of 88 battery-powered autonomous trucks are charged by wind turbines, according to a port spokesman, Peng Pai. “It’s much safer, and it uses clean energy,” said Peng. In a third-floor control room with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the port, a dozen operators sit in front of displays with as many as six screens showing video feeds of computer-controlled cranes lifting cargo boxes onto or off ships. Each can monitor as many as six cranes at once, unlike a traditional operator who serves only one ship. “People had to work high up in cranes,” said Yang Jiemin, a vice president of Tianjin Port Group. “Now, our operators can sit in an office and monitor equipment remotely.” Operators take control of a crane or truck if sensors indicate a problem, according to Huawei's Yue. He said the port’s goal is to cut that “takeover rate” to 0.1%, or one container in 1,000, while computers manage the handling of the others from start to finish. The high-speed network allows a crane or truck to react to a command in 1/100th of a second, even though the ships are 500 meters (one-third of a mile) away from the control room, according to Liu Xiwang, manager of the port’s information department. “You can’t feel the delay,” Liu said. Yue, the Huawei executive, was reluctant to say whether it needs processor chips or other foreign inputs that might be disrupted by U.S. sanctions. “I really don’t know the answer to your question,” Yue said after being asked twice about the sources of critical components. He compared it to buying a cup of coffee: “I don’t know who supplies the cup, the coffee beans and the water.”

Global smartphone makers Xiaomi Sunday said it recently started manufacturing printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) locally in Bangladesh. PCBA is one of the major parts of electrical, electronics and technology products. It connects various chips and electrical circuits to enable the overall functionality of a smartphone. Xiaomi already established a surface mount technology (SMT) plant in its Gazipur factory. This initiative is financed through 100 percent foreign direct investment. The company has collaborated with DBG Technology BD to manufacture its smartphones and PCBAs in Bangladesh.DBG, a global EMS company, has been operating in the manufacturing business around the world for several renowned brands of consumer electronics. Ziauddin Chowdhury, Xiaomi country manager, said: "Redmi 10C is the first product of Xiaomi that is available in the market with PCBAs manufactured in Bangladesh. Within a short time, all the locally produced Xiaomi smartphones will be using locally manufactured PCBAs." In the local plant, the SMT machines will mount around 2,500 surface mount device (SMD) components on the blank printed circuit board (PCB) to convert it into a completely functional smartphone motherboard/ PCBA and sub-PCBA."The SMT plant can produce 6,000 PCBAs daily. PCBA production will increase local value addition by around 10 percent," Xiaomi said. In October 2021, Xiaomi set up a factory in Bangladesh to produce smartphones locally. About 95 percent of the demand for Xiaomi smartphones in the country is met by the local factory. All entry-level and mid-range phones like Redmi 10A, Redmi 10C, and Redmi Note 11 are being made in Bangladesh.

Walton is showcasing eco-friendly, advanced and sustainable internet of things (IoT) smart products, including smart refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, home and kitchen appliances, silent and durable robust compressors; laptops and mobile phones with the latest features, e-bikes, elevators and other artificial intelligence (AI)-based household products. Walton's 'Inverna (Extreme Saver)' series AC, which received a 5.5-star energy rating from Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, is on display at the fair, the company said. This AC has frost clean, air plasma, three-in-one converter technology, smart control and various advanced technologies. At Walton Pavilion, visitors can see the electricity consumption of Walton Inverna ACs. Walton AC Research and Innovation Department head Ariful Islam said: "The input power of the Inverna (Extreme Saver) series 1 ton AC is 690 watts. That means a maximum of 690 watts of electricity will be required to run this AC." "If the user runs this AC in Eco mode for eight hours every day, it will consume only 106.8 units of electricity per month. According to the residential electricity rate, the bill will be Tk526 for the whole month and Tk2.19 per hour." Read more: CES 2023: Driverless cars, smart homes, metaverse dominate the tech show  

Fiber@Home, a nationwide transmission service provider in Bangladesh, has partnered with Cisco to accelerate the conversion of its network to 400G. The partnership will help the service provider seamlessly deploy an automated transport 5G-ready network across Bangladesh and support increased bandwidth demand from businesses of all sizes. Fiber@Home is using Cisco platforms for this expansion to enhance and optimise the overall customer experience, becoming the first customer in the country to adopt Cisco's Routed Optical Networking technology, said a media statement Thursday. "This new 400G wavelength network will offer a fourfold increase in maximum data transfer speed compared to 100G, enabling us to provide stable critical connectivity to our customers," Moynul Haque Siddiqui, chairman of Fiber@Home, said. Read more: '5G can change the face of industry in Bangladesh' "The Cisco Routed Optical Networking solution streamlines and strengthens our network capacity, providing a superior customer experience while also optimising our capex and opex utilisation." "Service providers like Fibre@Home recognise the value of a network that can be scaled in response to the dynamic needs of consumers and businesses. By converging their IP and optical networks, in addition to greater wavelength utilisation, Fiber@Home will be able to optimise their power consumption, resulting in a much lower carbon impact and streamlining of their hardware as well as leading to a reduction of 50 percent in operational costs," Anand Bhaskar, managing director (service provider business) Cisco India and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, said. "This partnership is a step towards bringing fast, reliable and sustainable internet services to the people of Bangladesh."

Elon Musk was depicted Wednesday as either a liar who callously jeopardized the savings of “regular people" or a well-intentioned visionary as attorneys delivered opening statements at a trial focused on a Tesla buyout that never happened.   Lawyers on opposing sides drew the starkly different portraits of Musk for a nine-person jury that will hear the three-week trial. The case is focused on two August 2018 tweets that the billionaire posted on Twitter, which he now owns.   The tweets indicated that Musk had lined up the financing to take Tesla private at a time when the automaker's stock was slumping amid production problems.   The prospect of a $72 billion buyout fueled a rally in the company’s stock price that abruptly ended a week later after it became apparent that he did not have the funding to pull off the deal after all. Tesla shareholders then sued him, saying that Tesla shares would not have swung so widely in value if he had not dangled the idea of buying the company for $420 per share.   Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer representing Glen Littleton and other Tesla shareholders in the class-action case, promptly vilified Musk as he addressed jurors.   “Why are we here?” Porritt asked. “We are here because Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive of Tesla, lied. His lies caused regular people like Glen Littleton to lose millions and millions of dollars." He also asserted that Musk's tweet also hurt pension funds and other organizations that owned Tesla stock at the time.   Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, countered that the run-up in Tesla's stock after the tweet mostly reflected investors' belief in Musk's ability to pull off stunning feats, including building the world's largest electric automaker while also running SpaceX, a maker of rocket ships.   “Mr. Musk tries to do things that have never been done before. Everyone knows that," Spiro told the jury.   Spiro added that Musk had been in advanced talks with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take Tesla private.   “He didn't plan to tweet this," Spiro said of Musk's Aug. 7, 2018, statement at the heart of the trial. “It was a split-second decision" aimed at being as transparent as possible about the discussions with the Saudi fund about a potential deal.   After saying “funding secured" for the buyout, Musk followed up with another tweet that suggested a deal was imminent.   Littleton, a 71-year-old investor from Kansas City, Missouri, was the first witness called to the stand. He said Musk's claim about the financing alarmed him because he had purchased Tesla investments designed to reward him for his belief that the automaker's stock would eventually be worth far more than the $420.   He said he sold most of his holdings to cut his losses but still saw the value of his Tesla portfolio plunge by 75%.   “The damage was done," Littleton lamented. “I was in a state of shock.”   Littleton's frustration escalated in October 2018, when he lashed out at Tesla for late deliveries on vehicles for some of his nieces and nephews. That led him to become a lead investor in the lawsuit.   “I still believe in Tesla to this day. I do,” Littleton said.   During cross-examination, a lawyer for Tesla's board of directors repeatedly questioned whether Littleton had legitimate reason to believe a buyout was inevitable, but the investor remained steadfast even while seeming confused at times.   “'Funding secured' was the only thing that mattered to me,” Littleton testified. “That was such a defining statement."   Musk's 2018 tweets attracted the attention of securities regulators, who concluded that they were improper and that he was lying. In a settlement, they forced him to pay $40 million and required him to step down as Tesla chairman.   U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who is presiding over the trial, ruled that the shareholders' lawyers can't mention that settlement in the case.   But Chen has already ruled that Musk's tweet was false, a finding that can be alluded to during the trial without specifically mentioning the determination made by the judge. Pollitt seized on that opportunity during his opening statement, informing jurors that they are to assume Musk's tweet was false, as the judge allowed. Spiro shook his head as he listened.   The trial’s outcome may turn on the jury’s interpretation of Musk’s motive for the tweets. And Musk will have his chance to make his case to the jury.   After the trial adjourned Wednesday, Porritt told The Associated Press he hopes to call Musk to the stand when the proceedings resume Friday after two other witnesses testify. If the allotted time runs out Friday, Musk will likely testify Monday, Porritt said.   Musk’s leadership of Twitter — where he has gutted the staff and alienated users and advertisers — has proven unpopular among Tesla’s current stockholders, who are worried that he has been devoting less time to automaker at a time of intensifying competition.   Those concerns contributed to a 65% percent decline in Tesla’s stock last year that wiped out more than $700 billion in shareholder wealth — far more than the $14 billion swing that occurred between the company’s high and low stock prices from Aug. 7 to Aug. 17, 2018, the period covered in the lawsuit.   Tesla's stock has split twice since then, making the $420 price cited in his 2018 tweet worth $28 on adjusted basis now. The shares closed Wednesday at $128.78, down from the company's November 2021 split-adjusted peak of $414.50.   After Musk dropped the idea of a Tesla buyout, the company overcame a production problem, resulting in a rapid upturn in car sales that caused its stock to soar and made Musk the world’s richest person until he bought Twitter. Musk dropped from the top spot on the wealth list after a stock market backlash to his handling of Twitter.

Global smartphone manufacturer Vivo has introduced an auto eye protection display in Vivo Y16 that modulates the balance of blue light . Vivo Y16 makes the users free from eye-protection mode activations, blue-ray filter downloads and all eye protective wears, said a press release. Followed by a bustling five-day pre-booking period, the first sale of this stylish smartphone officially started from Monday and will continue till January 22. The price of vivo Y16 has been set at Tk 15,999. Customers can avail this tempting first-sell bounties from any authorised vivo stores or e-stores. Read more: Vivo Y16 Review: Redefining The Essentials with a New Design Authorised vivo stores are now running a lucky draw promotion. Amidst all the attractive gifts, there is a lucrative ‘customer’s wish’ offer where they can fulfill any wish within Tk50000 and also can get Tk3000 cashback. Besides, everyone can grab a cool mug as a gift. The Y16 smartphone is capable of providing long term usability with one-time charging by dint of its powerful 5000mAh battery supply. The 6.51-inch HD plus LCD halo full view display enables the user's eyes shield from harmful blue light. FunTouch OS12 and Helio p35 chips are well-configured in this device as the operating system and core processor. This multi-touch capacitive touchscreen phone also ensures side mounted fingerprint technology on the power button. Read more: Vivo Y16 to be available from Monday An AI based 13 and 2 megapixel dual rear camera setup, associated by a 5 megapixel front-facing camera has been equipped to the device to capture all your eventful moments. This smartphone allows 4GB extended RAM facilities on top of its default 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. So you can download all your go-to apps without hassle. Its 2.5D curved flat frame will make you enjoy a trendy, smooth and classy outlook experience.

While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he didn’t. Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker where he continues to serve as CEO and from which he derives most of his wealth and fame. Musk claimed in a August 7, 2018 tweet that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla, which he then amplified with a follow-up statement that made a deal seem imminent. Read more: Elon Musk rebuffed in bid to move Tesla tweet trial to Texas But the buyout never materialized and now Musk will have to explain his actions under oath in a federal court in San Francisco. The trial, which begins on Tuesday with jury selection, was triggered by a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors who owned Tesla stock for a 10-day period in August 2018. Musk’s tweets back then fueled a rally in Tesla’s stock price that abruptly ended a week later, after it became apparent that he didn’t have the funding for a buyout after all. That resulted in him scrapping his plan to take the automaker private, culminating in a $40 million settlement with U.S. securities regulators that also required him to step down as the company’s chairman.