Elon Musk Sells Nearly $7 Billion in Tesla Stock Ahead of Twitter Deal Deadline
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sells 7.9 million shares worth $6.9 billion to prepare for a potential emergency closure of his $44 billion Twitter acquisition. Musk promises to buy back the Tesla shares if the social media deal falls through.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sells nearly $7 billion worth of his company's stock, unloading 7.9 million shares since Friday. This marks the first time the executive sells Tesla shares since April, when he disposes of $8.5 billion worth of stock. Over the past 10 months, Musk sells a total of approximately $32 billion in Tesla stock.
Musk states that these sales aim to prevent an emergency liquidation of Tesla stock if he is forced to complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The executive currently tries to exit the Twitter deal over disputes regarding the social media platform's bot calculations, but he waffles over the weekend by suggesting the deal could still proceed on original terms if Twitter provides more transparency.
Despite the massive sale, Tesla shares remain relatively stable and trade flat in after-hours markets. Musk tweets that he is done selling for now and promises to buy back his Tesla shares if the Twitter acquisition does not close, potentially taking advantage of the upcoming three-to-one stock split approved by Tesla shareholders last week.