Outspoken billionaire Elon Musk is having a tense week. Shareholders will decide on his $44.9 billion pay packet today.
Many saw the exorbitant $44.9 billion as a gratuitous amount to pay a CEO or controlling shareholder, but Musk has held firm to the agreement inked in 2018.
Today, he posted on the social media platform X, which he owns, the trend in voting behavior on his windfall. He said:
Musk set for $44.9 billion windfall
The above chart shows a “guaranteed win.” in the voting for the pay packet. So Musk will be happy that he has endured lengthy court battles and a grim public image to snap up the largest compensation ever seen by one individual.
In 2018, a deal was made with Musk, but many shareholders have disagreed. They have also disagreed with the company’s direction and the failing fortunes in the reportage documents.
As we reported, Glass Lewis, the proxy firm, urged shareholders to vote down the pay packet after shares tumbled by 4%. This was because of the pay award being thrown out by Judge Kathaleen McCormick, saying that the billionaire’s windfall “wasn’t fair” in a recent court hearing.
She continued, saying the “defendants maintained that the plan is an exceptional deal when compared to private equity compensation plans, but they did not explain why anyone would compare a public company’s compensation plan with a private equity compensation plan. The defendants insisted that the plan worked in that it delivered to stockholders all that was promised, but they made no effort to prove causation.”
Musk is also battling to relocate Telsa’s HQ to the legal home of Texas, which would seriously hamper the effectiveness of Judge McCormick’s ruling. If the base of operations moves, Musk will have a clear path and, after today’s voting, strong backing in the shareholder department.
Interestingly, Musk decided to post the votes to the public, as this process is generally behind closed doors to shareholders.
Musk has run afoul of the SEC for breaches of federal rules. He will also give evidence to the regulatory body on the probe into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. He similarly used his power on the platform to post his plans about taking over and discussing the legal documentation before the ink was dry. The SEC have hunted him for months for his flippant approach to how he conducts business.
Tesla in turmoil
Tesla has been plagued with bad press this year as redundancies and price slashes of its vehicles dominated the news cycle.
The automotive company has also fired and rehired its entire Supercharger Team and made a deal to sublet its electronic vehicle stations to rivals.
As we covered last month, BP seems to be circling over these stations to snap them up for $1 billion.
In short, Tesla has been an interesting watch amid the Musk circus. It remains to be seen if his posting of the shareholder topic was an attempt to gloat or dissuade those yet to cast a deciding vote in the saga.
No matter the outcome, Musk is fodder for a hungry news cycle sustained by his cavalier approach to business.
Image: Ideogram.
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