July 11 Reuters Elon Musk39;s attempt to scrap his purchase of Twitter Inc may leave the world39;s wealthiest person in a stronger financial position than before he unveiled the 44 billion deal, with billions of dollars in cash from selling Tesla shares now sitting in the bank.

After Musk on Friday tore up his April 25 agreement to buy the social media platform, with Twitter promising to force him to make good, the two sides face a potentially drawnout legal battle that could still cost Musk billions of dollars, according to legal experts.

Whatever the outcome may be, the Tesla chief executive for now appears to be sitting on around 8.5 billion in cash raised from selling shares of the automaker late in April to finance the Twitter acquisition. In the last week of April, Musk sold 9.6 million Tesla shares at an average price of around 885 per share.

He is almost certainly in a better cash position now than he was a year ago because he has sold so much Tesla stock, particularly at a fairly high price, said Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid.

However, depending on what the ultimate outcome of the litigation around this is, he could end up being in a much worse situation.

If Musk loses his legal battle against Twitter and is forced to complete the acquisition or pay a stiff penalty, he could conceivably have to sell more Tesla shares, spooking investors and hurting the value of his remaining Tesla stake, said Abuelsamid.

Tesla shares slumped 6.5 on Monday….