A judge gave Elon Musk and the SEC one more week to come to a new agreement about how to monitor the CEO's tweets

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A judge gave Elon Musk and the SEC one more week to come to a new agreement about how to monitor the CEO's tweets

Elon Musk leaves court SEC Tesla

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves Manhattan federal court after a hearing on his fraud settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in New York City, U.S. April 4, 2019.

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  • Elon Musk's tussle with federal regulators will last for at least an additional week, a judge ordered Thursday.
  • The Tesla CEO and SEC lawyers met for an hour by phone, the two parties said in a filing asking for an extension on their new agreement.
  • The fight goes all the way back to Musk's failed bid to take Tesla private in September, and the SEC's later motion to have Musk found in contempt of court.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and federal regulators have until Thursday to decide on a new agreement about monitoring the billionaire's tweets, a judge ordered Thursday.

Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) met by phone for "over an hour" as ordered by Judge Alison Nathan earlier in April, the two parties said in a joint filing.

"While we have not reached an agreement, counsel for the SEC, Mr. Musk, and counsel for Tesla met and conferred for over an hour by telephone earlier this week and are continuing to discuss potential resolution," the filing reads.

If a resolution is reached next week, it could finally draw to a close Musk's months-long tussle with federal regulators. Musk originally sparked the conflict back in September, when he tweeted that he was consider taking Tesla private at $420 per share, adding that funding was secured.

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Funding was anything but secured, it was later revealed, and the kerfuffle resulted in two, $20 million settlements between both Tesla and Musk with the SEC.

Musk also agreed to have his tweets monitored by a company employee, but Tesla has not disclosed who that "twitter sitter" is. That was fine, until Musk tweeted on February 19 that Tesla would make 500,000 cars in 2019 - a substantial deviation from what the company had told investors in its regulatory filings.

Despite a correction about four hours later that morning, the SEC accused Musk of violating the agreement and asked the court to find him in contempt of court. That motion is what brought Musk to a Manhattan court room in April, when a judge ordered both him and the SEC to put on their 'reasonableness pants' and come to a new agreement, which is now due on Thursday, April 25.

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