Elon Musk sold almost 4,000 million dollars in the car manufacturer Tesla between Friday and Tuesday, when he will have to finance the takeover bid, just over a week ago, of Twitter for 44,000 million dollars. The three transactions involve a total of more than 19 million shares, or just over 4% of the total number of securities owned by Elon Musk, and 0.6% of the total number of shares outstanding, according to forms filed with the US stock market. police (SEC).
This is not the first operation of this type carried out by the head of Tesla in the face of his takeover of Twitter, since Elon Musk has already sold 15.5 billion dollars in shares. These security sales should allow it to partially finance the takeover of the microblogging platform, which is done in cash for $27 billion, while much of the balance is financed with Twitter-backed loans that will ensure the financial burden and repayment. .
Concerned Small Carriers
The three phases of selling impacted the share price, which rose in three sessions from $222.50 a share at the open on Friday to $191.30 at the close on Tuesday, down 14%. On Twitter, several small Tesla holders expressed concern about these repeated sales of securities and their consequences on the share price, but also about the excessive attention that Elon Musk pays to Twitter to the detriment of the car group.
“I’m still working hard for Tesla! I was in our engineering office in Palo Alto (California, editor’s note) until Thursday night,” Elon Musk replied on his Twitter account. The billionaire took control of the social network on October 28, at the same time putting a premature end to what promised to be a long legal battle with the group’s board of directors, after announcing to buy Twitter for 44 billion dollars and then give it up
As soon as the operation was completed, Elon Musk fired all the directors as well as 50% of the group’s employees, and announced the launch of a completely redesigned Twitter Blue subscription offer, which allows obtaining certification and various benefits for 8 dollars . per month. The objective is to diversify its income while the platform depends 90% on advertising and loses, according to Elon Musk, 4 million dollars a day.
A financial situation that has worsened since its acquisition, after several large advertisers suspended their spending on Twitter. Criticism has come from all sides since the Twitter takeover, including the UN, which urged Elon Musk to defend human rights on the social network. On Tuesday, MEPs expressed their concern and demanded that Elon Musk be heard by the European Parliament to “learn more about his intentions” and remind him of his obligations.
Source: BFM TV
