Elon Musk has sold 4.4 million shares of Tesla stock worth roughly $4 billion (€3.7 billion) – most likely to help fund his purchase of Twitter.
Musk reported the sale in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
The shares were sold over the past few days at prices ranging from $872.02 to $999.13.
The world’s richest man, the chief executive of Tesla, said in a tweet he does not plan any further sales of the company’s shares.
No further TSLA sales planned after today
Advertisement— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2022
Most of the sales took place on Tuesday, when Tesla shares closed down 12 per cent, a huge single-day drop.
Tesla investors fear Musk will be distracted by Twitter and less engaged in running the electric car company, analysts said.
Twitter agreed to be acquired by Musk on Monday for $44 billion.
It appeared that Musk would borrow up to $25.5 billion dollars from a slew of banks to pay for the takeover of Twitter, though the stock sale could fund some of that.
The deal to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share was announced earlier this week and is expected to close sometime this year.
Freedom of speech means freedom of speech
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
But before the deal is completed, shareholders will have to weigh in.
So will regulators in the US and in countries where Twitter does business.
So far, though, few hurdles are expected – despite objections from some of Twitter’s own employees and users who worry about Musk’s stance on free speech and what it might mean for harassment and hate speech on the platform.
Tesla shares closed on Thursday down slightly at $877.51.
They are down 17 per cent so far this year.
