Has Tesla CEO Elon Musk already received the controversial shareholder vote to approve his $56 billion pay package deal?
Based on his celebratory posts on his social media community, X, issues actually appear headed in that route as of Wednesday night. Although Tesla will announce the ultimate outcomes of the vote at this afternoon’s annual shareholder assembly in Austin, the CEO is already claiming victory.
Musk’s worth and controversy
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package deal, permitted in 2018 however rejected by a Delaware choose this yr, has been a supply of intense controversy. Critics say Musk is distracted by his different ventures and hasn’t delivered a lot for Tesla as of late, whereas his ardent supporters say he is key to the corporate’s future—which he says might be pushed much less by vehicles and extra by robotics and AI.
“Each Tesla shareholder resolutions are at present passing by huge margins,” Musk posted late Wednesday night. “Thanks in your assist!”
If these outcomes bear out at the moment, they are going to reaffirm a controversial and unprecedented pay package deal he was granted in 2018 however that was rejected by a Delaware Chancery Court docket choose amid a shareholder lawsuit earlier this yr. The opposite decision could be to include Tesla at its bodily headquarters in Texas, not in Delaware, and Musk signifies that measure too is headed for approval.
The result, if true, will not be terribly stunning. Whereas a lot of massive, institutional funding corporations just like the California Public Staff’ Retirement System and Glass Lewis opposed Musk’s pay package deal, saying the CEO has been distracted by his many different ventures as of late to the detriment of Tesla, Musk nonetheless enjoys immense assist amongst a devoted fanbase of retail buyers.
And even when a lot of them did not approve of his main a number of corporations without delay—to say nothing of his public antics as of late, or perhaps a Wall Avenue Journal investigation that got here out yesterday and accused him of getting sexual relationships with feminine SpaceX workers—these buyers stated they did not wish to danger the worth of their Tesla shares plummeting if Musk have been to depart Tesla. That was an final result he and Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm strongly hinted at amid an enormous public and social media push to get out the vote in Musk’s favor.
In different phrases, if this vote does formally go at the moment, it may be seen as a stamp of approval for Musk’s continued management of Tesla and his claimed plan to make it “essentially the most worthwhile firm on earth” due to investments in AI and the pursuit of totally self-driving vehicles.
Nevertheless, as CNBC, Bloomberg and others notice at the moment, the vote alone doesn’t clear the way in which for Musk’s pay package deal to be reinstated. That is nonetheless working its approach by means of Delaware’s courts, which proceed to take difficulty with the truth that Tesla’s board of administrators is not a really impartial one—though the vote might assist tip the authorized case in his favor. The corporate even stated in a proxy submitting that it “can not predict with certainty how a vote to ratify Musk’s compensation could be handled underneath Delaware legislation.”
So whereas Musk’s pay package deal—which he has even stated is tied as to if or not he’ll keep at Tesla or pursue AI tasks “exterior” of the automaker—will not be settled for a while, at the moment’s vote will additional cement the concept “Tesla is Musk, and Musk is Tesla.” For higher or worse.
It is a breaking information story; extra to come back on InsideEVs because the day goes on.
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