Tesla shares fall after Musk poll 0:51
London (CNN Business) -
Tesla saw more than $ 30 billion vanish from its market value on Monday after millions of Elon Musk Twitter followers voted in favor of him selling 10% of his shares in the company.
Shares of Tesla fell about 3% in morning trading in New York, recovering slightly from a 6% pre-market slide.
Musk tweeted on Saturday that he would let Twitter users decide whether to sell 10% of the 170.5 million shares he owns in Tesla.
The verdict of the Twitterverse: 58% of more than 3.5 million voters had said "yes" at the close of the poll this Sunday.
"There is a lot of talk lately that unrealized gains are a way to evade taxes, so I'm proposing to sell 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?" The Tesla CEO posted.
Musk added that he would comply with the poll result whatever it was, but has not yet announced what, if anything, he will do next.
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?
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- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
Musk has previously faced regulators for posting tweets that have moved Tesla's stock price, without first consulting the board of directors or thoroughly examining the material information he was providing to shareholders.
In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged him with fraud, after tweeting that it was considering taking Tesla to market.
To settle the charges, Musk accepted a court-approved settlement that required Tesla's board of directors to review any social media posts that contained "material" information for shareholders.
Months later, after he was brought to the attention for defying the order, the agreement was amended to include a specific list of topics Musk needs permission to tweet about.
The list includes tweets about the financial situation of the company, production figures or new lines of business.
Elon Musk asked on Twitter if he should sell part of his Tesla stock.
This is what the Twitterverse said
Musk does not receive any salary from Tesla.
His 170.5 million Telsa shares were worth $ 208.3 billion as of Friday's close.
At a price of US $ 1,222.09 per share, 10% would be valued at US $ 20,800 million.
Musk owns 80% of those 170.5 million Tesla shares since the company's initial public offering in 2010. In addition, he has the option to buy another 73.5 million shares.
It is unclear whether those shares would count toward his holdings if the Twitterverse convinces him to sell 10% of his stake in the company.
As of Sunday, Musk was the richest man on earth, with a total net worth of $ 338 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- CNN's Ramishah Maruf, Chris Isidore and Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
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