Tesla founder and chief executive Elon Musk on Monday sold about US $ 1.1 billion in shares of the electric vehicle maker, after announcing over the weekend that he was planning to part with 10% of his titles.
According to documents filed Wednesday with the US market regulator, the SEC, the richest man in the world sold about 930,000 shares on Monday alone.
On Saturday, the 50-year-old carried out a poll from his Twitter account to find out whether or not he should part with 10% of his Tesla shares. Some 57.9% of the 3.5 million voters responded positively.
Monday, at the opening of Wall Street, the title had plummeted, dropping up to 7.2% while the market feared that the hot boss would run and unbalance, on his own, the supply and demand of actions of the builder.
The shares sold on Monday by Elon Musk were therefore sold at a significantly lower price than if he had sold them before his tweet, the entrepreneur losing, in the process, tens of millions of dollars in unrealized profits.
The document also reveals that the facetious businessman had started the sale on September 14 and therefore did not determine according to the survey.
At the end of the transaction, Elon Musk still held, according to the document filed with the SEC, 1.22 million Tesla shares in open access as well as another 170.4 million housed in a trust, worth total of 183 billion US dollars at Wednesday’s closing price.
On Monday, the founder of Tesla had also exercised 2.15 million stock options, which allowed him to buy as many securities at 6.24 dollars each, or less than 1% of their current value.
After losing another 11.99% on Tuesday, still weighed down by Elon Musk’s announcement, Tesla stock eventually rebounded on Wednesday and closed up 4.34%.