Elon Musk says he was joking about buying Manchester United

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on Wednesday said he is not buying any sports team, hours after he tweeted that he will buy British football team Manchester United.

When asked by a Twitter user if he is serious about buying Manchester United, Musk said, “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams.”

In a series of tweets, the world’s richest person said he supports the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party.

These comments come days after Musk sold 7.92 million Tesla shares worth $6.9 billion amid his legal tussle with Twitter. The billionaire said he sold Tesla stock to avoid an emergency sale in case he’s forced to close the Twitter deal and some of his equity partners don't come along.

When a Twitter user asked Musk on the microblogging platform if he would buy the Tesla stock again if the Twitter deal doesn't close, Musk replied saying "Yes".

With the latest sale, the world's richest man has sold Tesla stock worth $32 billion little less than a year. In April, too, Musk sold Tesla shares worth $8.5 billion.

Twitter had sued Musk in the U.S. Delaware Court of Chancery last month, accusing him of "knowingly" breaching the $44-billion deal.

Meanwhile, Musk has cited Twitter's inability to provide data and information on spam or fake accounts on its platform as the key reason for abandoning the deal.

Musk had earlier said that Twitter is “actively resisting and thwarting” his information rights and the company’s corresponding obligations under the merger agreement.

In an SEC filing, Twitter had claimed that spam or fake accounts represented less than 5% of its monetisable daily active users during the quarter ended March 2022. Musk, however, made it clear that he does not believe the company’s lax testing methodologies are adequate so he must conduct his own analysis.

The two sides now head to trial on October 17.

In April this year, Twitter had announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at around $44 billion.

Musk had received financing commitments from 18 investors including crypto exchange Binance, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, asset managers Brookfield and Fidelity for the Twitter buyout.