Elon Musk is fast closing in on his pledge to sell 10% of his stake in the electrics cars maker he founded. The world’s richest person offloaded another 934,091 shares earlier this week for about $906.5 million to cover taxes on the exercise of 2.1 million more options, according to regulatory filings.
Based on his November Twitter poll, Musk plans to sell 10% of his total Tesla shares. At the time, he owned just over 170 million shares, so theoretically he plans to sell about 17 million shares to fulfil his Twitter pledge.
He has now sold 11.9 million shares spread over a dizzying 680 sales, according to data provider InsiderScore/Verity, netting a staggering $12.7 billion over five weeks.
$200 BILLION-PLUS WIPED OFF TESLA VALUE
Musk’s disposals have dragged on Tesla shares. The latest transactions coincided with Tesla’s market valuation closing below $1 trillion for the first time since 22 October. At the overnight $975.99 close, the stock is more than 20% off its recent $1,229.91 on 5 November, putting the stock in a bear market.
Forget Twitter polls, the main reason Musk is selling is to pay the taxes on the exercise of options that expire next summer. As part of a 2012 compensation package, the Tesla CEO was given options on 22.8 million shares that expire next August. The options were valued at more than $28 billion when Musk started selling shares, which means his tax bill could have been as high as $15 billion, according to experts.
Based on his 10% target, Musk will likely sell another five million shares worth nearly $5 billion before the year is out.
