Harry Wilmerding
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold nearly $1 billion shares of stock in his company after unloading almost $10 billion in November, CNBC reported.
Musk, the richest man in the world, according to Forbes, sold 934,091 shares of Tesla stock worth $963.2 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission financial filings published Thursday, CNBC reported.
Musk also exercised stock options to buy 2.17 million shares of Tesla, according to CNBC.
Tesla shares slid 1% in pre-market trading Friday after the sale. Additionally, Musk posted on Twitter that he is “thinking of quitting my jobs & becoming an influencer full-time,” asking for the thoughts of his nearly 66 million followers.
Musk sold $9.85 billion worth of Tesla stock in November, included $6.9 billion during the week of Nov. 10 and almost $2 billion more on Nov. 15 and 16, CNBC reported.
Musk asked his Twitter followers whether he should sell a large sum of his Tesla holdings on Nov 6. Roughly 3.5 million total users responded, of which 57.9% said yes.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” Musk said in the Nov. 6 post.
Musk faces a $15 billion tax bill, the likely reason for his decision to unload Tesla shares, CNBC reported. Musk previously stated at a conference that he was planning on selling stock because his marginal tax rate will be over 50% once his stock options expire.
“I have a bunch of options that are expiring early next year, so … a huge block of options will sell in Q4 — because I have to or they’ll expire,” Musk said, according to CNBC.
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