Elon Musk
sold roughly $4 billion worth of
Tesla Inc.
stock in the two days after agreeing to buy
Twitter Inc.
for $44 billion, according to regulatory filings made public late Thursday.
The Tesla chief executive reported selling a total of more than 4.4 million shares on Tuesday and Wednesday at prices between around $870 and $1,000 a share, the filings show.
Before this week’s sales, Mr. Musk owned roughly 17% of the electric-vehicle maker, or more than 172 million shares, according to FactSet.
Mr. Musk is on the hook to come up with $21 billion in cash to finance the Twitter deal. His funding plan also includes borrowing $12.5 billion from loans backed by more than $62.5 billion worth of Tesla shares that he owns. Tesla and several banks have put in place rules that would require him to put up more collateral if the company’s share price falls.
Mr. Musk tweeted Thursday: “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”
Payment Patchwork
Elon Musk is paying for Twitter partly with his own cash, and the rest with a mix of a buyout loan and a loan against his Tesla stock.
Where Mr. Musk is getting $46.5 billion to buy Twitter
$12.5 billion margin loan against Tesla
$12.5 billion margin loan against Tesla
$12.5 billion margin loan against Tesla
$12.5 billion margin
loan against Tesla
$12.5 billion margin
loan against Tesla
Mr. Musk has a net worth of $252 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the world’s richest person. But much of his wealth is tied up in his companies, which include Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX. Mr. Musk, who is compensated in stock awards and doesn’t accept a cash salary from Tesla, at times has described himself as cash poor.
Mr. Musk for many years was reluctant to part with Tesla stock. However, he sold more than $16 billion worth last year, much of it to pay taxes due on a large tranche of vested stock options he exercised before they would have expired this year.
Selling stock could weaken Mr. Musk’s control over Tesla. Companies such as
parent
Meta Platforms Inc.
and Google parent
Alphabet Inc.
have multiple classes of shares, giving founders supervoting power over common shareholders. Tesla lacks such a structure.
Shares in Tesla, the world’s largest car maker by value, are down more than 16% this year.
Write to Rebecca Elliott at [email protected]
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