Elon Musk Sells 19.5 Million Tesla Shares Worth Nearly $4 Billion After Mega Twitter Deal

After concluding his $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal, Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla Inc. shares in the last three trading sessions
November 9, 2022 by Anwesha Majumdar
Tesla CEO Elon Musk once again sold millions of Tesla shares. After concluding his $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal, the billionaire sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla Inc. shares in the last three trading sessions. As per three filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the CEO sold 19.5 million shares on Tuesday, November 8, for a total value of roughly $3.95 billion.
Furthermore, it is pertinent to mention that Tesla stock dropped in each of the three trading sessions, dropping 11.2% overall and closing below $200 for the first time since June 2021.
Even though Musk did not answer why he sold shares, it is quite probable that the proceeds from the sale would go toward his $44 billion acquisition of the social network giant, which was completed last month, Tech Crunch reported.
Approximately 9.6 million shares of Tesla stock, valued at $8.5 billion at the time, were also sold by Musk in the month of April. The price for such shares was roughly $885.42. Tesla has since announced a three-for-one stock split, reducing the price per share, Tech Crunch reported. On Tuesday, Musk sold Tesla shares at an average price of $202.56 per share. Tesla is presently trading after hours at $191.30.
Musk employed over 50 Tesla staff to work on Twitter
In the meantime, the acquisition of the microblogging platform Twitter took place when Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, gave Musk and Twitter until October 28 to complete the sale. Notably, Musk offered to buy Twitter in April but subsequently withdrew the bid in July. Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk in the Delaware Court of Chancery in reaction to his decision, attempting to persuade him to accept the original offer. In October, Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter for the initially set $44 billion price.
Furthermore, just days after completing the acquisition deal, according to a report by CNBC, Musk employed over 50 staff from his automaker, Tesla. According to the report, more than 50 Tesla workers are software engineers from the Autopilot team.
According to internal data obtained by CNBC, a number of individuals working for Musk's businesses, including more than 50 from Tesla, two from the tunnel construction company Boring Startup, and one from the neurotechnology company Neuralink, have been given permission to work at Twitter. Director of Autopilot and TeslaBot engineering Milan Kovac, senior director of software engineering Maha Virduhagiri, director of software development Ashok Elluswamy, and senior staff technical program manager Pete Scheutzow are apparently among the Tesla workers.