Musk took to Twitter to decide the fate of his Tesla stock - or did he?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also happens to be the richest man in the world, has sold nearly $5bn in Tesla stock but still holds more than 116 million shares.
On Tuesday and Wednesday (November 9, 10), Musk's trust sold more than 3.5m shares, equating to over $3.88bn, reports
CNBC.
Said transactions were not marked as 10b5, which means they were not scheduled sales. Then on Wednesday evening, filings showed that Musk will be selling another chunk of Tesla shares through a plan he set up on September 14. These 930,000 shares equate to a further $1.1bn.
https://twitter.com/_tsavalias/status/1458486955520446464
In short, these share sales were to satisfy tax obligations related to an exercise of stock options.
Musk had initially asked his 62.5 million Twitter followers in a poll, telling them that their vote would determine the future of his Tesla shares. However the filing indicates that Musk knew some of his shares were going to sell this week, which suggest he wasn't as democratic as he pretended to be.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1457064697782489088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1457064697782489088%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2021%2F11%2F10%2Felon-musk-sells-1point1-billion-of-tesla-stock.html
His Twitter poll created a slump for Tesla stock which fell 15 per cent over Monday and Tuesday before growing by four per cent on Wednesday.
If you like comeback stories, then you'll be pleased to know that by Thursday, his stock had rebounded completely.
"Individuals like Elon Musk, like Jeff Bezos have transformed life, and we want to keep them in control of their companies, as long as they've got the energy and the ambition to keep moving the business forward," said Citadel CEO Ken Griffin on Wednesday.
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