Or the SEC could finally go after Elon for market manipulation. There's always options.
Let's separate two concerns:
1) Belief system – whether you philosophically support Elon's take over or not
2) Objective facts, corporate finance and legal aspects of what's going on
All I can see in this thread is 1) masquerading as 2).
Indeed. One would have hoped that Hacker News would be immune from Reddit/Twitter-style "Anything I don't like is illegal/unconstitutional", but apparently not.
"Someone buying up shares of a company before he announces a hostile takeover is inside information and thus illegal!" Good grief.
"I am going to dump 1/10th of the company that I very publicly acquired if they don't do what I want them to do" feels like manipulation since he's controlling the value of such a large amount of it.
But is it illegal to be willing to lose money if a threat isn't met?
Furthermore, would it be illegal for him to dump his shares, allow the trajectory to tank the price further, then rebuy when it bottoms, rinse and repeat?
No, you are allowed to sell your shares if you don't want them anymore.