musk-sells-395-billion-in-Tesla-stock-after-Buying-Twitter.jpg" alt="Elon Musk, owner of Twitter and Tesla.rn " />
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold at least $3.95 billion worth of shares in the electric-vehicle maker in the days after closing the Twitter purchase. The billionaire mogul dumped 19.5 million shares, according to regulatory filings Tuesday in New York.The documents, analyzed by Bloomberg, do not indicate that the transactions were planned in advance.
Musk, the world’s richest person, achieved his goal of controlling the social network in October after months of negotiation. In August, he had said that he would no longer be dumping his Tesla shares and that it was important to avoid an “emergency sale” of the shares in case he had trouble getting new partners for the Twitter acquisition. Tesla shares plunged 7.17% at the close of the day on Wall Street.
Doubts about the acquisition of Twitter
Analysts are still unsure how the $44 billion Twitter buyout deal was ultimately financed, beyond the roughly $13 billion pledged by Wall Street banks. Musk has never publicly addressed how he planned to raise the money needed to close the deal.
In addition, Twitter is in a delicate position. Since Musk took over, several major companies like Loreal have suspended their ads on the platform, waiting to see how it evolves under the billionaire’s leadership. Musk has acknowledged last week that the social network is suffering a “massive drop in revenue” from advertising due to the withdrawal of these advertisers, for which he blamed “activist groups” that pressure the platform.
The billionaire’s drastic steps to cut costs – including laying off roughly half of the staff and the entire board of directors – and overhauling all of the platform’s operations have led to a tumultuous two weeks at the company.
“It looks like Musk is setting himself up for things to be bad on Twitter for the next year,” Gene Munster of Loup Ventures said after the share sale was made public. “He’s preparing for Twitter to be a money hole.” The deal has also sparked concern among some Tesla shareholders that the CEO will extend the layoffs to Tesla as well, while continuing to sell his shares in the firm. Musk has already sold some $36 billion worth of shares in the automaker in the past year.about half since he made the plan to buy Twitter public, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Shares of the electric car maker are down 53% from their peak last year.which has taken Musk’s fortune to $179.5 billion, up from a peak of $340 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.