The sale is an apparent response to the Democrats' plan for
a possible billionaires' tax imposed on about 700 of the richest Americans
including Musk, who also founded SpaceX, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff
Bezos and Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk currently has a real-time net worth of nearly $281.6
billion, making him one of the world's richest people according to Forbes, with
his wealth surpassing the $200 billion mark two months ago.
Prior to the sale becoming public, Musk asked his 62.5
million followers on Twitter in an informal poll whether he should sell 10% of
his stock to pay his taxes.
Nearly 58% of the more than 3.5 million respondents said
Musk should sell his shares and Musk said Sunday that he would listen to the
followers' suggestion. "whichever way it goes," he said in a tweet.
The bizarre request on social media caused Tesla stock to
briefly plunge to as much as 15% before rising 4% on Wednesday. But apparently,
Musk already knew he was selling as far back as September, according to the SEC
document.
So was he playing the market?
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said late Wednesday that
it was well known that Musk was going to sell some stock by year's end. Ives
said Musk had a big tax bill due from his 23 million stock options awarded in
2012 that have vested and expire in August 2022.
"With a tax bill that we calculate at north of $10
billion, selling stock over the coming months before year-end is not a
surprise, although holding a Twitter poll to sell 10% of his stock is another
soap opera that can only happen to one company and one CEO in the world,
Musk," Ives said, adding that Musk owns roughly 22% of Tesla as Wall
Street investors thought he would sell between 5% to 6% of his Tesla stake.
"In a nutshell, we would rather Musk rip the band-aid
off now and sell this portion of stock rather than it lingering over the next
year and feeding into any non-fundamental bear thesis on the story," Ives
said.
The revelation of the Tesla stock sale comes about a week after
Musk tweeted that he'd sell some of his stock to help curb global hunger if the
United Nations could prove where the money is going.
Musk responded to a tweet from noted researcher Dr. David
Eli who said 2% of Musk's wealth, about $6 billion, nearly matches that raised
by the UN World Food Programme (WFP): $8.4 billion. Musk said he would sell
Tesla stock and donate the proceeds if the U.N. could prove his donation could
save millions from hunger.
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