The world’s richest person, Tesla founder Elon Musk, allowed his Twitter followers this weekend to decide how much ownership he should have in the electric car company Tesla. On Saturday, Musk suggested he sell ten percent of Tesla’s stock — and wanted to see if his Twitter followers would back him up.
“Whether a majority says he will sell or not a majority will sell, Musk will stick to what the majority decides,” he wrote on Twitter.
And his followers decided Sunday night: 58 percent support the sale. More than 3.5 million people participated in the survey.
“Toss a coin to 25 billion”
“We’re seeing Twitter fans decide the outcome of a coin toss to 25 billion,” venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya wrote in a tweet in response to Musk’s proposal, according to Bloomberg News.
This is not entirely wrong. If Musk’s followers asked him to sell ten percent of the shares, that would equate to selling shares worth just over $21 billion, measured by Friday’s share price, according to Bloomberg News. This corresponds to about 180 billion NOK.
Musk mentions the ongoing debate that the wealthy in the United States refrain from selling shares to avoid paying taxes. Musk himself wrote on Twitter that he does not receive a salary or bonus and that his only way to pay taxes is to specifically sell the shares.
Three times as rich as Buffett
Even if Twitter followers had to vote for Musk to dispose of Tesla shares for 180 billion kroner, he still had shares left. Musk’s net worth recently exceeded $300 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – more than $2,500 billion.
The founder of Tesla is not only the richest man in the world, but also the first to exceed 300 billion in personal wealth. Musk has racked up more than $100 billion in wealth so far this year.
The California electric car manufacturer has crossed the magical $1,000 billion market cap. It happened after car rental company Hertz announced that it would buy 100,000 Teslas.
Elon Musk tops the list of the world’s richest people by an ever-increasing margin. Musk is now three times richer than investor legend Warren Buffett.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We want you to share our cases using a link that leads directly to our pages. All or part of the Content may not be copied or otherwise used with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms look here.
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