Elon Musk Sells Billions Of Dollars Of Tesla Stock
What's going on Captain Musky?
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If you’re an investor in Tesla there is at least one phrase you don’t want to hear or read: “Elon Musk is selling his shares of Tesla.” Learning the CEO of the company is selling his own shares doesn’t exactly boost investor confidence in the company’s stock market future. Well, right now those investors are dealing with that panic as the SpaceX founder is once more unloading millions of his shares of Tesla.
NBC News and others reported on Tuesday night that Elon Musk had sold off 7.92 million shares in Tesla, with a total estimated worth of $6.88 billion. The sales came to light via SEC filings published Tuesday night. They occurred Friday August 5 betweenTuesday August 9. NBC noted the transactions began the day after the Tesla shareholders meeting took place in Austin, Texas.
According to Reuters, Elon Musk claims the Tesla share sales went through in case the billionaire is forced to keep his word. On Twitter, Musk wrote, “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.” In response to tweeted questions, Musk claimed this would be his last sale of Tesla stock this year as well as adding that if the Twitter deal is not pushed through, he will buy the shares back.
However, this is not the first time this year Elon Musk claimed to be done with selling off Tesla shares. Shortly after his deal to buy Twitter was first announced, as reported by electrek at the time, Musk sold of 4.4 million Tesla shares; a move that caused the company’s stock value to nosedive. On April 28, Musk tweeted that he didn’t plan to sell any more Tesla shares, though clearly things have changed.
Elon Musk first announced his intention to add Twitter to his list of companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, in mid-April. At first the social media platform resisted the acquisition, but by the end of April, Musk and Twitter reached a deal. By mid-May, the billionaire announced his deal with Twitter was “on hold,” saying that the company had not proven to his satisfaction the claim that less than 5% of Twitter’s users were bots or fake accounts. A month later, Twitter shareholders were suing Musk, claiming he was manipulating the stock. In June Musk threatened to pull out of the agreement, still claiming Twitter was refusing to provide the data regarding bots and fake accounts, while Twitter claimed it was fulfilling its agreement to the letter. By July, Twitter had taken Musk to court to force him to close the deal.
For his part, Elon Musk is still claiming that Twitter has not given the Tesla owner the information he needs. As recently as last week, Musk was using Twitter’s own platform to claim that he was still willing to move forward with the deal if the company could prove that less than 5% of its users were bots.
