Tesla shares drop after Elon Musk’s Twitter followers said Yes to selling his stocks.
Tesla declined after its CEO’sTwitter followers voted in favor of selling 10 percent of his shares in the company.
Elon Musk gave people the option to vote “Yes” or “No” and premised to abide by the results, whichever way it went. Some 3,519,252 people responded, 58 percent, a majority of 3.5 million Twitter users said they’d support such a sale.
“I was prepared to accept either outcome,” Musk said in a tweet after the poll closed. But he didn’t know that Behind his Twitter Poll Is a Tax Bill Coming Due
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Elon Musk Asks His 62.5 Million Twitter Followers if He Should Sell 10% of Tesla Stock
Tesla stock price drops after Elon Musk Tweet
Tesla fell approximately 7.2 percent in pre-market trading compared with Friday’s close of $1,222 in New York.
It’s not the first time Mr.Musk has fallen foul of regulators for posting tweets that have moved Tesla’s stock price. Without previously consulting the board or fully vetting the material information he was providing shareholders. Previously, In 2018, the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) charged him with fraud, after tweeting that he was considering taking Tesla private.
The 10% shares would net him $95.9bn before taxes If he exercised all of the options now and immediately sold them.
It doesn’t matter the results of the Twitter poll, Musk would have likely started selling millions of shares this quarter. Because he’s facing a looming tax bill of more than $15 billion.
Elon Musk has owned 80% of 170.5 million Tesla shares since the company’s initial public offering in 2010. In addition, he has the option to also buy another 73.5 million shares. It’s still not clear if those shares would be counted in his holdings.
Even though Musk is still now the richest man on Earth with a total net worth of $338 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
