Elon Musk has loudly sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla stock in recent years to pay his tax bills and then acquired social media platform X at a sky-high valuation of $40 billion. Now this sale of assets is coming back to him like a boomerang.
In response to a post on X questioning the need for a new compensation package for the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk made a loud statement that he was not comfortable working at Tesla with his current voting rights. Recall that the mega-billionaire owns approximately 13% of the company’s shares, or 412 million shares.
I’m not comfortable growing Tesla as a leader in AI and robotics without having about a 25% majority stake. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be outmaneuvered.
If that’s not the case, I’d rather build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand that Tesla is not one startup, but a dozen. Just look at the gap between what Tesla and GM are doing. In terms of motivation from simply owning shares, Fidelity and others have similar stakes to me. Why don’t they show up for work?
Elon Musk explained that he has enough voting rights in Tesla to be “influential”, but not enough that he won’t be “outplayed” from time to time. The billionaire issued a challenge, threatening to “create products outside of Tesla” if the company’s board of directors did not satisfy his demands.
Recall that in 2022, Tesla went through a trial where some shareholders argued that Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation plan should be invalidated because it was the result of fictitious negotiations and was dictated by Musk himself. Although the trial has concluded, a verdict has not yet been reached in this case.
In a follow-up post, Elon Musk added that with less than 15% of Tesla’s voting rights, his wishes are too easily circumvented.
Meanwhile, as the electric car market cools, hybrids and cars with traditional engines are preparing to regain some of their lost market share.
2024-01-16 09:40:00
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