NEW YORK – Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold about $8.4 billion worth of shares in the electric car maker in the days after Twitter’s board approved its public offering $44 billion buyout, according to U.S. securities filings.
Musk sold about 9.6 million Tesla shares in a series of deals Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday and Friday morning.
The deals, which typically cost between $800 and $995 per share, follow Monday’s announcement that he would take over Twitter and take it private, in a deal heavily dependent on Musk’s personal wealth.
After those sales, Musk, the richest person in the world, owns about 163 million shares of Tesla through a trust.
“No more TSLA sales after today,” Elon Musk tweeted late Thursday, using the stock symbol for Tesla.
Musk has pledged up to $21 billion of his personal fortune to fund his acquisition of Twitter, which was confirmed on Monday, with the rest financed by debt.
Twitter shares rose 1.6% to $49.77 in morning trading on Friday.
That’s still well below Musk’s offer of $54.20 per share in the deal, a gap that market watchers say signals the risk that the deal won’t close.
Some analysts have expressed doubts about the deal’s success, including questions about funding and fears that Twitter could hijack Musk from running Tesla.
Tesla shares, which have fallen during the week, rose 4.4% to $916.30 on Friday.
- AFP
