UPDATE: New SEC filings released on April 29 reveal that Elon Musk sold an additional 5.2 million shares on April 28, valued at approximately $4.5 billion. This means Elon Musk sold a total of 9.6 million shares for about $8.5 billion this week. The offloaded shares represent 5.6% of his stake in the company.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold almost $4 billion worth of shares in the EV maker, marking the first share sale since he offloaded $16.4 billion worth of stock in November and December 2021.
The sale fuels speculation that the proceeds will go toward financing Musk's planned $44 billion buyout of Twitter, which was announced on April 25 when the social media platform's board agreed to accept the takeover offer from Elon Musk.
Tesla shares fell by 13.5% over the past five days, closing at $877.51 on April 28, over worries that the billionaire could sell part of his stake in the carmaker to fund the Twitter deal.
According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made public on the evening of April 28, Elon Musk sold a total of 4.4 million Tesla shares on April 26 and 27, the days following his bid to take Twitter private.
While investors remain concerned that he may have to sell more Tesla shares to help fund the takeover, Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that he had no plans to sell more stock in the electric vehicle carmaker.
The tweet suggests he might have sold some shares on April 28 as well; we'll probably learn that later today when the disposals would have to be reported.
Tesla's shares have fallen by around 20% since Musk revealed earlier this month that he had bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter.
On April 26 alone, Tesla's market capitalization lost more than $126 billion after the Twitter board accepted Musk's takeover offer. The Tesla CEO said he would commit $21 billion of his assets to help finance the $44 billion Twitter deal.
As part of the takeover agreement, Musk secured $25.5 billion of fully committed debt, including $12.5 billion in margin loans tied to his Tesla stock; prior to that, he had already borrowed against about half of his Tesla shares.
While Twitter accepted Elon Musk's offer earlier this week, the deal still requires the approval of shareholders and regulatory bodies.
According to the SEC regulatory filing, Musk would have to pay Twitter a termination fee of $1 billion if he fails to secure enough funding to complete the acquisition. On the other hand, if Twitter accepts a competing offer, or its shareholders reject the deal, the social media company would owe Musk $1 billion.
Read more about Elon Musk's bid to take Twitter private
