The world’s richest man Tesla CEO Elon Musk is off late selling quite a lot of his shares. In a recent move Musk sold off another 934,091 shares worth USD 1.01 billion of the electric vehicle manufacturing company to meet his tax obligations. Since November 8, Elon Musk has sold shares worth USD 10.9 billion which equals 10.1 million shares in total.
Why is Elon Musk selling his shares?
(Image Source: Reuters)
Elon Musk who is every active on Twitter, in early November announced on the social media platform that he would sell 10% of his stock if his followers approved of it. A majority of them agreed on Twitter with the idea of the sale of shares following which he sold them off.
(Image Source: Reuters)
A media report suggests Musk was facing USD 3.5 billion tax bill on his options at the time. This would have amounted to more if Tesla stock did not plunge following the Twitter poll, which actually saved him USD 480 million.
(Image Source: Reuters)
Elon Musk still has an option to buy about 10 million more shares at USD 6.24 each, according to Reuters. Musk’s option expires in August next year, which is a reason why he has gone on a share selling spree.
(Image Source: Reuters)
Tesla shares, though dropping after Elon Musk’s Twitter poll, held to the USD 1 trillion market cap to become the most valuable car-making company in the world. On Friday, Tesla shares were selling at USD 1,084 per share. Musk’s 2021 stock selling spree comes five years after he had last sold the shares in 2016. He had at the time sold the shares to cover an income tax bill of USD 600 million, as per a media report.
Despite selling off so many stocks, Elon Musk’s net worth stood at USD 283 billion on Friday, as per the Forbes Billionaire index. Earlier this year, it pushed past the USD 384 billion mark. This made him far richer than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos who is the second richest man in the world. Musk is still the world’s richest man.
