Musk Asked Twitter If He Should Sell Tesla Stock And The Market Freaked Out

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently asked Twitter users whether he should sell some company stock, which led to the market freaking out. Tesla and its shareholders have been riding high throughout 2021, with the company’s share price roughly tripling over the last twelve months. There are many reasons for this trend, not least of which is the firm managing to shoulder the global chip shortage, allowing it to deliver record profits in its latest quarterly earnings.

Of course, Musk has a history of disruptive Tweets. From inviting the Russian government to chat on Clubhouse to proclaiming he would offload most of his worldly possessions, Twitter has been a platform where Musk has always enjoyed being unfiltered. Unlike other Tesla investors, however, Musk has almost 63 million Twitter followers – which is ostensibly more than enough influence to move markets.

Related: Dogecoin & Baby Doge – Is The Elon Musk Effect Coming To An End?

In a November 6th Tweet, Musk proposed offloading 10-percent of his Tesla stake – valued at approximately $25 billion. In a follow up post, Musk promised to abide by the result of the poll, no matter the outcome. The 24-hour vote attracted over 3.5 million responses, with Twitter users ultimately voting 57.9-percent in favor of multi-billionaire Musk selling off the stake. While some might view the choice to trust the Twitter hive-mind with such a major decision as bold, others could see it as reckless. As the results of Musk’s weekend poll came in, markets reacted. Tesla’s share price dipped about 7-percent in pre-market trading, recovering somewhat after the bell. At the time of writing, Tesla’s shares are down around 5-percent. All of this is before there is evidence of Musk actually selling any stock.

In another Tweet, Musk stated he doesn’t take a typical salary from Tesla, saying his only method of paying taxes is by selling off stock. CNBC notes Musk is facing a tax bill of over $15 billion in the coming months, suggesting the CEO would likely have to divest himself of shares – with or without the input of Twitter. According to Investopedia, Musk currently owns just over 193 million Tesla shares, equal to more than 20-percent of all available stock. At the time Musk published the Twitter poll, his Tesla stake was worth about $250 billion. Of course, that valuation has since slipped – along with the millions of other publicly-traded Tesla shares.

Musk has been here before, of course. In 2018, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 a share. The US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) took umbrage with the missive, subsequently leveling a $40 million fine against Tesla and Musk. In addition, the agency ordered Tesla to institute a system to monitor Musk’s communications. At the time, the SEC said the measures were necessary to “protect investors.” It remains to be seen whether the SEC will take any action now that investors are – on paper at least – losing money, seemingly because of a handful of Tweets. Still, even if Musk does have to pay another penalty (alongside an enormous tax bill), the Tesla CEO still has SpaceX to fall back on.

Next: Tesla Model 3 And Y Are Nearly $10,000 More Expensive Than A Year Ago

Souces: Elon Musk/Twitter, CNBC

Article Source and Credit screenrant.com https://screenrant.com/elon-musk-tesla-stock-twitter-poll-market-reaction-tax/ Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buytickets.com

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