Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai, China, 7 January 2019. Portal/Aly Song
Aug 10 (Portal) – Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O) chief executive officer Elon Musk sold $6.9 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, saying the funds could be used to fund a potential Twitter deal to be used in case he loses a lawsuit with his social media platform.
“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal *and* some equity partners don’t go through, it’s important to avoid a fire sale of Tesla stock,” he said in a tweet late Tuesday.
In early July, Musk tore up his April 25 agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Twitter has sued Musk to force him to complete the deal, dismissing his claim that he was misled about the number of spam accounts on the social media platform because of the buyer’s remorse following a slump in tech stocks. The two sides are due in court on October 17.
“Street will read through this poker move that the odds of a Twitter deal are more likely now,” tweeted Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.
In other comments on Twitter Tuesday, Musk said “yes” when asked if he was done selling Tesla stock, and also said he would buy Tesla stock again if the Twitter deal doesn’t go through .
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Portal request for comment.
Musk, the world’s richest person, sold $8.5 billion worth of Tesla stock in April and said at the time that no further sales were planned. But legal experts had since suggested that Musk would likely sell more Tesla stock if he was forced to complete the acquisition or settle the dispute with a hefty penalty.
Musk sold approximately 7.92 million shares between Aug. 5 and Aug. 9, according to multiple filings. According to Portal calculations, he now owns 155.04 million Tesla shares or almost 15 percent of the carmaker.
The recent sales bring Musk’s total Tesla stock turnover to about $32 billion in less than a year.
Tesla shares are up nearly 15% since the automaker reported better-than-expected earnings on July 20, also helped by the Biden administration’s climate bill that, if passed, will cap tax credits for electric vehicles would cancel.
Musk also teased on Tuesday that he could launch his own social media platform. When asked by a Twitter user if he had thought of starting his own platform if the deal didn’t go through, he replied: “X.com”
Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Shubham Kalia and Shivam Patel; Editing by Edwina Gibbs
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