Image Source: The Verge
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has sold an additional 7.92 million Tesla shares for approximately $6.88 billion (£5.7 billion).
According to regulatory filings, the sales happened following the company’s annual shareholder meeting last week.
Musk claims he needs the cash in case he is required to pay $44 billion for Twitter.
After declaring last month that he would back out of an agreement to purchase the social media site, the multi-billionaire is currently locked in a legal spat with it.
According to six documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the most recent transactions took place on August 5, 8, and 9.
When asked in a tweet whether he had finished selling Tesla shares after the share sale became public, Mr. Musk replied “yes,” adding that he needed the money in case he was forced to acquire Twitter and was unable to secure some of the funds for the deal.
It’s crucial to prevent an urgent Tesla stock sale, he said.
If the Twitter takeover does not occur, Mr. Musk said “absolutely” when asked by another user if he would repurchase Tesla stock.
The company sued Mr. Musk after he announced in July that he would abandon his attempt to acquire Twitter.
The corporation is being accused of hiding information regarding phony accounts by the richest man in the world.
A US judge decided last month that the trial for Twitter’s lawsuit against Mr. Musk should take place in October.
Twitter is hoping that the court will direct Mr. Musk to complete the acquisition at the agreed-upon share price of $54.20.
Although the specifics of Mr. Musk’s countersuit against Twitter have not been made public,
Also, in July, Twitter revealed that it had spent $33 million on the potential deal between April and June.
Additionally, it stated that Twitter now has 237 million monthly active users, which was worse than expected.
In the meantime, Tesla disclosed last month that it had sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings, which were estimated to be worth $2 billion at the end of 2021.
When the corporation revealed a sizable investment in the biggest cryptocurrency in the world last year, it caused a stir.
With the $936 million from its Bitcoin sales, Tesla claimed to have purchased conventional currency.
The Securities and Exchange Commission received several documents late on Tuesday night detailing the sales from Friday through Tuesday. They represent Musk’s first Tesla share sale since April when he sold 9.6 million shares to raise $8.5 billion.
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These April trades happened not long after Musk and Twitter agreed to a $44 billion purchase agreement. However, he stated a month ago that he would not be following through with that agreement, claiming that Twitter management had withheld critical information about the number of user accounts that were spam and bot accounts rather than accounts managed by real people. As a result, swift legal action was taken by Twitter (TWTR) to compel Musk to proceed with the April agreement’s conditions.
Has Musk ever sold his Tesla shares before?
When Musk previously needed to obtain money for taxes on exercising options that were about to expire, he mainly did so by selling Tesla shares. The first large selling of Tesla stock by Musk for reasons other than an impending tax payment occurred in April, shortly after the Twitter purchase was finalized.
In the most recent days, Musk sold shares for an average price of $869 per share. This is significantly less than the $1,046 average price he obtained when selling 15.7 million shares late last year, which was down from an average price of $883 per share on his Tesla sales in April. The proceeds from that transaction were used to pay the anticipated record amount of personal income tax he would owe due to exercising options that were about to expire.
Even with the most recent stock sales, Musk still controls 155 million Tesla shares and has the option to purchase an additional approximately 100 million at prices much below market value. He has power over around 20% of the outstanding shares of Tesla, thanks to the shares he owns and the options he has to purchase additional shares. And fewer than 3% of the shares and options he currently owns are represented by the 7.9 million shares he just sold.
