Elon Musk sells almost $4bn more of Tesla shares after Twitter takeover
The world’s richest man dips into his Tesla shares again to raise cash but is yet to give a reason for doing so just days after firing around half of Twitter’s workforce.
Wednesday 9 November 2022 06:23, UK
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Elon Musk has sold Tesla stock worth almost $4bn (£3.46bn) after completing his takeover of Twitter.
The founder and chief executive of the electric vehicle maker unloaded 19.5 million shares between Friday and Tuesday, according to filings published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The purpose of the sale was not disclosed but leave Musk’s holdings in Tesla at around 14%, according to the Reuters news agency.
The value of Tesla’s stock has plummeted by almost half this year alongside many other so-called growth stocks – seen as susceptible to the tougher global economy but particularly high levels of inflation.
However, Tesla’s value also reflects a series of sales by Musk himself to fund the $44bn Twitter acquisition and wider shareholder sentiment that Tesla would lose focus now that the Tesla/Twitter/SpaceX billionaire had further demands on his time.
Analysts had widely expected Musk to sell additional Tesla shares to finance the Twitter deal.
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He had pledged to provide $46.5bn in equity and debt financing for the acquisition, which covered the $44bn price tag and the closing costs.
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Banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America committed to provide $13bn in debt financing.
Musk’s $33.5bn equity commitment included his own 9.6% Twitter stake, which is worth $4bn, and the $7.1bn he had secured from equity investors including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Despite jitters, that saw him pull away from the deal in May, he completed the sale last month and has since gone on to sack around half the workforce and said he will charge users $8 a month for blue check marks to verify the authenticity of a user’s account.
Musk was yet to comment on why he sold the Tesla stock.
