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It’s almost as if Musk used a smoke screen to sell $8.5B in Tesla stock before the crash while redirecting attention to Twitter so as to not raise suspicion abo

It’s almost as if Musk used a smoke screen to sell $8.5B in Tesla stock before the crash while redirecting attention to Twitter so as to not raise suspicion about selling his own stock…and then instead of going through with the deal he allegedly sold his Tesla stock to complete, he wants to back-out without paying the $1B penalty. But that can’t be it and what really happened, Musk is buying Twitter for us and restoring our Free Speech…right?

conradev 4y ago
Musk is (was?) not selling Tesla stock. It would be very hard to sell $8.5B of stock without completely crashing its value. He was taking out a loan secured against that stock.
- throwawaycities 4y ago
  According to this regulatory filing with the SEC, and others, he did, as I said a smoke screen to distract from the fact he most certainly did crash the stock as you suggest. A total sale of about $8.5B, but the total Twitter purchase price was $44B and that difference is where you are likely getting the idea of the loan against his remaining stock. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001494730/000089924322015991/xslF345X03/doc4.xml https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001494730/000089924...
- Kranar 4y ago
  It's a matter of public record that MUSK ELON REEVE sold precisely $8,517,410,779 worth of Tesla stock between April 26th and April 28th [1]. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/insider-transactions?p=TSLA https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/insider-transactions?p=...
Mo3 4y ago
Ding ding ding
xmprt 4y ago
From my understanding, there's literally no way to get out of the $1B penalty even if he proves everything that he claims about Twitter bots. What he's trying to get out of right now, is buying Twitter at the price he originally said.
yieldcrv 4y ago
Is he even capable of selling just because he wants to buy something? Insiders have to have a stock acquisition/disposition window and follow that schedule to only sell during that pre-determined schedule I don't really understand this theory/criticism, can you elaborate? note, its not about whether he did, its about whether its important since all insiders have windows and schedules they can and can't sell in in this criticism, did he sell outside of that window? and is that compliant? if it was within the window, then... who cares?
- positr0n 4y ago
  The theory is that buying twitter provided him a good "excuse" to dump a ton of TSLA. If he had just randomly sold billions of TSLA it would have spooked the markets because it would seem like Elon didn't believe in the future of the company, or at the very least didn't believe that it's current valuation is justified.
  - yieldcrv 4y ago
    an you mean that its not really about the liquidity of the markets, its more about the perception of why the sell (of an amount that large) occurred at all, and extrapolating what that means okay
- throwawaycities 4y ago
  He sold $8.5B in stock over 3 days and within 2 days of the sales filed Form 4’s (changes in beneficial ownership) as required by the SEC. If you have SEC filings showing these sales were scheduled in advance show please link them.
  - yieldcrv 4y ago
    It would be a legal issue if they weren’t scheduled So proving that they werent is More important than proving that they were
winternett 4y ago
It sounds like a diabolical idea, but why would someone risk that much money on something that is pretty much guaranteed to get tied up in long-term and very public litigation? There's no way to simply back out of a very public offer for a major social app without litigation that costs time out of your life (which is in that case more of a painful thing than losing the money). Paying capital gains (after huge deductions of course) might prove to be less by the time it's all done.
- justapassenger 4y ago
  Because Musk thinks he’s a god, he can distort the reality around him and do whatever he wants with no consequences. And TBH, he has all the reasons to think so. He’s been openly lying about so many aspects of his businesses for a long time, manipulating markets, ignoring all the rules and regulations and only thing it resulted in, was making him wealthiest man in the world.
  - winternett 4y ago
    I'd never give bad behavior a pass, but I think moral points are superfluous to the discussion, and they only serve to show emotional bias, they don't really serve the right method of evaluating the overall situation. Expressing character traits and flaws puts a harmful spin on discussions. Think of the situation as if an unknown person did the very same things perhaps? The actual actions taken and specific words written and recorded are the only things that will be considered most by a court ultimately (if correct process is followed).
    - watwut 4y ago
      This thread is not court and the question posed was "why would Musk do it". And the answer seems spot on - he lied and bullied for years and it tended to end for his benefit. There was no reason for him to not think it is going to end the same way. And it is not even primary issue with Musk, it is primary issue with general economy/justice syatem that favors lying and bullying, pri ided you have enough money.
- 4y ago

conradev 4y ago

Musk is (was?) not selling Tesla stock. It would be very hard to sell $8.5B of stock without completely crashing its value. He was taking out a loan secured against that stock.

throwawaycities 4y ago
According to this regulatory filing with the SEC, and others, he did, as I said a smoke screen to distract from the fact he most certainly did crash the stock as you suggest. A total sale of about $8.5B, but the total Twitter purchase price was $44B and that difference is where you are likely getting the idea of the loan against his remaining stock. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001494730/000089924322015991/xslF345X03/doc4.xml https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001494730/000089924...
Kranar 4y ago
It's a matter of public record that MUSK ELON REEVE sold precisely $8,517,410,779 worth of Tesla stock between April 26th and April 28th [1]. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/insider-transactions?p=TSLA https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/insider-transactions?p=...

Mo3 4y ago

Ding ding ding

xmprt 4y ago

From my understanding, there's literally no way to get out of the $1B penalty even if he proves everything that he claims about Twitter bots. What he's trying to get out of right now, is buying Twitter at the price he originally said.

yieldcrv 4y ago

Is he even capable of selling just because he wants to buy something? Insiders have to have a stock acquisition/disposition window and follow that schedule to only sell during that pre-determined schedule I don't really understand this theory/criticism, can you elaborate? note, its not about whether he did, its about whether its important since all insiders have windows and schedules they can and can't sell in in this criticism, did he sell outside of that window? and is that compliant? if it was within the window, then... who cares?

positr0n 4y ago
The theory is that buying twitter provided him a good "excuse" to dump a ton of TSLA. If he had just randomly sold billions of TSLA it would have spooked the markets because it would seem like Elon didn't believe in the future of the company, or at the very least didn't believe that it's current valuation is justified.
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  an you mean that its not really about the liquidity of the markets, its more about the perception of why the sell (of an amount that large) occurred at all, and extrapolating what that means okay
throwawaycities 4y ago
He sold $8.5B in stock over 3 days and within 2 days of the sales filed Form 4’s (changes in beneficial ownership) as required by the SEC. If you have SEC filings showing these sales were scheduled in advance show please link them.
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  It would be a legal issue if they weren’t scheduled So proving that they werent is More important than proving that they were

winternett 4y ago

It sounds like a diabolical idea, but why would someone risk that much money on something that is pretty much guaranteed to get tied up in long-term and very public litigation? There's no way to simply back out of a very public offer for a major social app without litigation that costs time out of your life (which is in that case more of a painful thing than losing the money). Paying capital gains (after huge deductions of course) might prove to be less by the time it's all done.

justapassenger 4y ago
Because Musk thinks he’s a god, he can distort the reality around him and do whatever he wants with no consequences. And TBH, he has all the reasons to think so. He’s been openly lying about so many aspects of his businesses for a long time, manipulating markets, ignoring all the rules and regulations and only thing it resulted in, was making him wealthiest man in the world.
- winternett 4y ago
  I'd never give bad behavior a pass, but I think moral points are superfluous to the discussion, and they only serve to show emotional bias, they don't really serve the right method of evaluating the overall situation. Expressing character traits and flaws puts a harmful spin on discussions. Think of the situation as if an unknown person did the very same things perhaps? The actual actions taken and specific words written and recorded are the only things that will be considered most by a court ultimately (if correct process is followed).
  - watwut 4y ago
    This thread is not court and the question posed was "why would Musk do it". And the answer seems spot on - he lied and bullied for years and it tended to end for his benefit. There was no reason for him to not think it is going to end the same way. And it is not even primary issue with Musk, it is primary issue with general economy/justice syatem that favors lying and bullying, pri ided you have enough money.
4y ago