Elon walking away from Twitter deal after selling $8B of TSLA for it

Elon Musk is walking away from Twitter deal after selling $8 billion worth of Tesla (TSLA) stock for it

Electrek.co by Fred Lambert

[{"selector":"#anim-72197921-166f-4787-85b3-4a8166e6743a","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] After months of negotiations, Elon Musk has officially moved to terminate his takeover of Twitter, but the CEO has still sold around $8 billion worth of Tesla (TSLA) stock to make it happen. What is he going to do with that money?

[{"selector":"#anim-13c941f1-bbcf-4804-b8bd-1df627c9923a","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] After Tesla went public in 2010, Elon Musk often said that he would be the “last one to sell Tesla stocks”.

[{"selector":"#anim-afa724fc-9af8-4cb6-a3c3-5993cfa9445f","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] The CEO periodically had to do it to cover his taxes after receiving large stock compensations. That started to change last year.

[{"selector":"#anim-910d0828-43c2-4f2a-9328-e619dcb2a76e","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] In late 2021, Musk said he would sell 10% of his stake in Tesla if a Twitter poll would agree, which it unsurprisingly did.

[{"selector":"#anim-5cbdd6a1-c92a-4d10-8fb6-b1c5372ddcf4","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] The CEO framed the idea as pressure from the media and politicians about the rich not paying taxes on unrealized gains.

[{"selector":"#anim-344227ba-3eee-4aaf-9fae-feda6d75010a","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] However, Musk wasn’t as vocal about the fact that he was facing a giant tax bill regardless of his sale of shares, due to a large number of stock options he needs to exercise over the next year.

[{"selector":"#anim-c216e653-501d-4cc0-b13d-946202641d75","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Though the CEO did end up selling more Tesla shares than he needed to cover his tax burden from the stock options being exercised.

[{"selector":"#anim-d222442a-622d-451d-b8c0-f7e704defb70","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] In December 2021, Musk announced that he was done selling Tesla. A few months later, we learned that he used some of that extra money from selling those shares to invest in Twitter.

[{"selector":"#anim-1a66a46c-9580-4b8c-83fa-76e084e7f888","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":500,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.4, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] What does this mean for Elon Musk now that he's backing out of the Twitter deal? Continue reading to learn more and read Electrek's Take at Electrek.co. Learn more