New York
CNN
—
Elon Musk sold another 22 million shares of Tesla to raise $3.6 billion.
Musk sold shares on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The sale was disclosed in an SEC filing late Wednesday.
Musk did not file a reason for the sale. They were his first sales of Tesla shares since he sold them in early November 19.5 million shares In a short time He completed his acquisition of Twitter.
Before Musk first started trying to buy Twitter, he rarely sold Tesla stock. Usually his sales are linked to what he has to sell to pay the taxes he has to pay on exercising the options.
But he has sold a total of $22.9 billion worth of Tesla stock since the first announcement of the Twitter purchase in April.
That stock sale and his focus on Twitter have worried Tesla shareholders and analysts.
“As Musk uses Tesla as his own ATM machine to put red ink on Twitter, the Twitter nightmare continues, and it’s getting worse by the day,” in a note early Wednesday. This remains a concern of the Tesla story as Musk turns it into a ‘funding source’. It remains a scenario of mergers and acquisitions and train wrecks.”
Musk’s sales this week represent less than 5% of Tesla shares.
Even with this latest sale, he owns 423.6 million shares of Tesla through a trust worth $69 billion based on the average sales price he received this week. Payment of exercise price. He will receive even more options early next year after Tesla’s upcoming financial results are announced.
But the value of those stocks continues to decline. Tesla shares are down 55% so far this year. A major reason he has recently been the decline in the value of Tesla shares He lost the title of rich man on the planet.
Ives told CNN that Musk could use the proceeds from the Tesla stock sale to cover losses on Twitter, or pay off loans or other investors he used to finance the $44 billion acquisition. Not good news for Twitter or Tesla, he said. Ives said Tesla’s team of Musk fans should set some limits for him.
“Musk is the heart and lungs of Tesla, but his focus is only on Twitter, and that and constantly selling stock is not a good combination for Tesla,” Ives said. “Despite 20% of Tesla’s stock decline due to concerns about demand and growing EV competition, 80% is due to his focus on Twitter. Twitter needs a non-Musk CEO.
Tesla
(TSLA) The stock was down 1% in premarket trading.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”