Elon Musk Will Sell $3.9 Billion Worth Of Tesla Stock For Twitter

If you are wondering while Elon Musk is aggressively slashing costs at Twitter and trying to monetise it fast, it is because his Tesla stock is tied to this acquisition. With tech stocks tumbling through the year, his net worth is also down and now he has been forced to sell another $3.9 billion of his Tesla stock. This comes after he was forced to sell $6.9 billion of his Tesla stake in August. At the time he said he wouldn’t sell more of his Tesla stock to finance the Twitter deal, but it seems like he has been forced to do the same. 

Musk has sold 20 million shares in the SEC filing which is worth $3.9 billion. Musk’s sale of his Tesla stock has also resulted in a massive reduction in Tesla’s market capitalization. It has lost around 30 per cent of its market value. This loss is much more than the value of Twitter. 

Musk acquired the social media network for a whopping $44 billion which Musk himself admits is on the higher side, though analysts suggest it could be two times the value of the company. 

For years, Musk has said that he wouldn’t sell his Tesla stock but when he offered to acquire Twitter, he structured the offer in such a way that his Tesla stock was tied to it. When this was revealed, Tesla’s stock started plunging and, there was a downturn in tech valuations because of the economic slowdown. 

Musk tried to get out of the Twitter deal, but legally he was tied up and he backed off and was forced to complete the acquisition after Twitter sued him.