Topline
As he looks to finance his massive acquisition of social media company Twitter, Elon Musk sold another 5.2 million shares of Tesla for roughly $4.5 billion, bringing his total share sales this week to nearly 10 million, according to new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission released on Friday.
Musk offloaded another 5.2 million Tesla shares on Thursday.
Key Facts
Musk sold 5.2 million shares of Tesla stock on Thursday, at prices ranging between about $823 and $903 per share, according to new regulatory filings.
Tesla’s billionaire CEO walked away with $4.5 billion in proceeds from the most recent share sale, which will amount to roughly $3.5 billion after taxes.
The latest batch of selling comes right after Musk offloaded 4.4 million Tesla shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, for about $4 billion, according to filings.
Tesla’s billionaire CEO has now sold roughly 9.6 million shares of his electric vehicle this week alone, for pretax proceeds of around $8.5 billion, days after he agreed to buy social media platform Twitter.
Musk is looking to rustle up funds for his planned acquisition of Twitter, after the company’s board of directors approved his $44 billion takeover bid on Monday.
Musk, who is the world’s richest person, still owns 163 million shares of Tesla, shares of which jumped nearly 5% on the news Friday.
Crucial Quote
Musk tweeted on Thursday evening: “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”
Big Number: $260.5 Billion
That’s how much Musk is worth after the latest share sales, Forbes calculates. The majority of his fortune comes from his stakes in Tesla and rocket maker SpaceX.
Surprising Fact:
Musk now has $8.2 billion of cash, up from $1.7 billion before the batch of Tesla stock sales this week (after accounting for taxes), according to Forbes’ estimates. That amounts to almost half of the $21 billion in equity commitments he pledged as part of the deal to buy Twitter.
Further Reading:
Elon Musk Sells About $4 Billion In Tesla Shares Ahead Of Planned Twitter Purchase (Forbes)
