56 billion dollar tile for Elon Musk: a Delaware judge canceled a remuneration plan granted in 2018 to CEO Elon Musk, for a value now estimated at 56 billion dollars, a plan that had contributed to making him the richest man in the world .
After the ruling, the stock lost more than 3.5% on Wall Street in after-hours trading.
The judge ruled in favor of some shareholders, who had sued, claiming that the decision to grant that astronomical package of stock options to Musk lacked transparency and motivation and that Musk himself dictated the terms of his compensation.
"The process that led to the approval of the plan was profoundly flawed", reads the provision.
"Musk launched an autonomous driving process, recalibrating the speed and direction along the route as he saw fit. The process came at an unfair price", continues the judge with a metaphor that seems to allude to the carmaker's innovative 'Autopilot' system.
The decision raises a series of questions about the governance of the company: one of these is whether the board, which includes several friends and Musk's brother, is able to control his behavior.
One justification for giving the stock to Musk was that it would keep him focused on building electric cars.
Instead, over the years, Musk has "distracted himself" by diversifying his interests, including with the acquisition of Twitter in 2022 for 44 billion dollars.
For him it is yet another setback, after the recent 12% collapse of Tesla's shares, which burned 80 billion dollars in just a few hours due to the disappointing results of the last quarter and the forecasts of a significant slowdown in growth in 2024.
Furthermore, just in recent days, Musk had launched an ultimatum from his products based on artificial intelligence.
Threatening to otherwise develop them outside of Tesla.
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