Musk wins SolarCity lawsuit, coal billionaire now richer than Buffett, Indonesia bans palm oil exports

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Notable business headlines include a Delaware court ruling in favor of Elon Musk over Tesla’s SolarCity acquisition, Indian industrialist Gautam Adani surpassing Warren Buffet as the fifth richest person in the world, and Indonesia banning crude and refined palm oil exports.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: A Delaware court has ruled in favor of Elon Musk. Of course, the Tesla CEO in a shareholder lawsuit over the company's $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity. Tesla shareholders alleged that the deal amounted to a bailout pushed through by Musk, as he sat on the boards of both companies at the time. A lawsuit could have cost upwards of $2 billion, though the decision still could be appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court. The solar panel installer was founded in 2006 by Musk's cousins, Peter and Lyndon Rive.

Indian industrialist Gautam Adani has surpassed Warren Buffett to become the fifth richest person in the world. His net worth? $125 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Adani is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a conglomerate of businesses in mining, real estate, energy, agriculture, and more. Ahead of Adani on the list, the aforementioned Elon Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Meanwhile, inflation may be getting even worse for food because of an export ban on palm oil in Indonesia. Indonesia's chief economic minister announced Wednesday, the South Asian nation would be expanding an export ban to include crude and refined palm oil.

As palm oil is a component of a plethora of products, including peanut butter, lipstick, detergent, baby formula, and many more, the news sent palm oil futures surging by nearly 10% in Malaysia on Wednesday. That, by the way, is the world's next largest producer. Palm oil production is criticized by environmental groups because of its contributions to mass deforestation in equatorial countries where the majority of it is produced.