Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
According to the Forms filed with SEC on Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold a total of 7,924,107 shares in the last 5 days worth 6.88 billion. The sales took place on August 5th, 8th, and 9th and the average price per share was $869.09.
Musk said these sales allow him to avoid “an emergency sale of Tesla stock” in case some equity partners exit the plan ahead of the Twitter deal adding that he will buy Tesla shares again if the deal doesn’t move on.
When asked if he was done selling Tesla sales, Elon said: “Yes. In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock”.
On July 8, Elon Musk’s lawyer sent a letter to Twitter’s chief legal officer saying he wants to end his agreement to purchase the social media platform in a $44 billion deal.
Twitter’s board chairman Bret Taylor answered on the platform saying the company is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed” adding that plans to pursue legal action in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
In early June, Musk had asked Twitter for more information on SPAM accounts believing that the social media platform is actively thwarting information rights. On the form, Musk reiterated his request for certain data needed in order to calculate the evaluation of Twitter’s spam and fake accounts.
On May 13, Elon Musk tweeted that the $44 billion Twitter deal was “temporarily on hold” due to pending details regarding the percentage of spam/ fake accounts.
According to Reuters, Twitter estimated in a filing that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter. The social media company had 229 million users who were served advertising in the first quarter.
On the same day Musk announced the intention to buy Twitter, Tesla’s CEO was interviewed for TED Vancouver and said: “I’m not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it. And I should also say, the intent is to retain as many shareholders as is allowed by the law. I could technically afford it”.
As Tesla’s CEO has been saying multiple times, removing the fake accounts was one of his priorities when acquiring Twitter.
Recently, Tesla announced its Q2 2022 Earnings Results reporting total revenue of $16.9 billion (up 42% year-over-year) and a 14.6% operating margin saying it expects to achieve “50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries” confirming the previous guidance.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter