Yet Another Major Stock Dump for Elon Musk

CEO sells off an additional $1.05B worth of Tesla shares, inching closer to his 10% goal
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 24, 2021 8:57 AM CST
Yet Another Major Stock Dump for Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seen in Wilmington, Del., on July 13, 2021.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)

Elon Musk asked the internet, and it looks like he's going to acquiesce to the internet. Earlier this month, the Tesla CEO put up a Twitter poll asking if followers thought he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock, promising to "abide by the results" either way. The majority voted yes, and although Musk hasn't yet reached the 10% mark, he's inching his way closer after unloading billions of dollars in shares last week. Now, another big sell: Reuters reports Musk has sold another $1.05 billion worth of shares, as indicated by Securities and Exchange Commission filings submitted this week.

Musk activated the sale after exercising options to buy 2.15 million shares. MarketWatch notes that 10% of Musk's original number of shares would have equaled about 17 million shares—which means now that he's dumped about 9.2 million, he has 8 million or so more to get rid of. Per Barron's, if Musk keeps up his current sell-off pace, he should reach that 10% goal in about four weeks.

As Musk doesn't take a cash salary or bonus, he needs to sell stock to pay taxes. The Wall Street Journal reports he's facing a $3.5 billion tax bill on his options—a tab that would've been bigger except for the fact that Tesla's share price dipped after he tweeted about dumping his shares. The paper adds Musk had already had a plan in place to exercise at least some of his vested stock options, weeks before he asked the internet what to do. (More Elon Musk stories.)

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