Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
Chief Executive Elon Musk took to Twitter
TWTR,
late Sunday to deny a report that he had fallen out with Google
GOOG,
co-founder Sergey Brin after engaging in a brief affair with Brin’s wife last fall.
The report in the Wall Street Journal indicated the alleged affair caused Brin to file for divorce from his wife earlier this year and ended the tech billionaires’ long friendship.
“This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night!” Musk tweeted late Sunday. He added that he has only seen Brin’s ex-wife, Nicole Shanahan, twice in three years, “both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.”
In subsequent tweets, Musk charged the Journal with running “so many bs hit pieces on me and Tesla I’ve lost count!” He also said that character-assassination attacks “have reached a new level this year, but the articles are all nothing-burgers,” adding that he works crazy hours that do not allow time for “shenanigans.”
The Journal cited people described as familiar with the matter as saying that Brin has told his financial advisers to sell his personal investments in Musk’s companies.
Brin filed for divorce from Shanahan in January of this year, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to records filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The divorce filing was initiated several weeks after Brin learned of the affair, the people cited by the newspaper reportedly said.
