A regulatory filing published on Thursday showed that Elon Musk sold about 4.4 million shares of his electric vehicle company Tesla on Tuesday. The value of these shares are estimated to be almost $4 billion.
The billionaire through Aaron Beckman, his power of attorney, filed a total of five Form 4s with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to cover all 138 individual transactions.
The filing failed to state Elon Musk’s reasons for selling his shares, and this revelation comes as quite a surprise because selling his shares is deemed something that the billionaire is least expected to do. The fund is expected to go towards funding his $44 billion bid for Twitter. The billionaire, days ago, said that he already had secured funding for the bid and $4 billion out of $44 billion seems quite insignificant.
Twitter’s board before warming up to the bid had tried to prevent a hostile takeover of the company. The board adopted a “poison pill” otherwise known as a shareholders’ rights agreement. “The Rights Plan will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person, or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders,” Twitter said via a statement.
Elon Musk’s offer most likely got considered after he revealed that he had acquired $46.5 billion to finance the deal.
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders,” Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chairman said.
In a Thursday tweet, CEO Elon Musk revealed that he wasn’t planning to continue Tesla shares. “No further TSLA sales planned after today,” he said.
Elon Musk will be required to pay Twitter a termination fee of $1 billion if he can’t secure funding for his bid. Twitter will also have to pay Elon Musk $1 billion in breakup fee if the company decides not to go through with the deal as a result of another offer.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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