Elon Musk offloads another £2.9bn of Tesla shares sparking investors’ fury
Elon Musk has offloaded a further $3.6bn (£2.9bn) worth of Tesla shares, sparking the fury of several investors.
The serial entrepreneur announced late last night he relinquished 22 million of the EV giant’s shares between Monday and Wednesday.
The $3.6bn sale is the second time Musk has sold part of his stake in the company since the $44bn acquisition of Twitter, which took place in late October.
It still remains unclear if the two sales are linked to the social media platform’s takeover.
Nevertheless, the offload has sparked widespread anger among investors, who believe the chief executive is dropping the ball at Tesla to instead focus solely on Twitter.
Tony Sycamore, analyst at foreign exchange company IG, told Reuters Musk’s decision didn’t put “a lot of confidence in the business.”
“It’s not a good situation,” he said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of investors who have Tesla shares and they’re absolutely furious at Elon.”
Tesla has been approached for comment.
Musk defended his decision to focus on the social media platform last month when he was brought to court by a disgruntled Tesla investor.
“There’s an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition,” he told a US tribunal in mid-November. “But then I expect to reduce my time at Twitter.”
Following Musk’s takeover, the social media giant has been plagued by mass layoffs and an exodus of advertisers.