Elon Musk sells Tesla shares worth $ 6.9 billion, according to Twitter poll | The Guardian Nigeria News

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold more than $ 6.9 billion in shares in the electric car maker this week, according to regulatory filings released on Friday.

The 50-year-old South African billionaire sold more than 5.1 million Tesla shares, of which around 4.2 million were held in a trust.

Its massive sale hit Tesla’s stock price, which plummeted 15.4 percent over the week.

Tesla became the newest U.S. tech giant last month, reaching a market value of $ 1 trillion.

Musk’s sell-off came days after it created a Twitter poll – which millions voted – whether to sell 10 percent of its huge stake in the electric car maker.

On Saturday, Musk tweeted, “A lot has been done lately with unrealized gains being a tax avoidance tool, so I suggest selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support that? “

In the survey, almost 58 percent of the 3.5 million votes cast were in favor of continuing the sale.

Tesla stock slumped when Wall Street opened on Monday and has continued to fall since then.

Musk’s stock, divested this week, was sold at a significantly lower share price than if he had sold prior to his tweet.

Official records showed that the tech entrepreneur initiated sales of at least some of those stocks ahead of the Twitter poll.

Musk still owns approximately 167 million Tesla shares, according to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk stock sales are subject to a minimum of $ 1.4 billion in capital gains tax.

His tweets followed a proposal by US Democrats in Congress to tax the super-rich more heavily by targeting stocks that are normally only taxed on sale.

Musk is the richest person in the world, valued at $ 294 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.