FILE -Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington, Monday, March 9, 2020. U.S. securities regulators responded to allegations that they are harassing Elon Musk, writing in a letter that they’re following a judge’s instructions in trying to speak with the Tesla CEO’s lawyers about his posts on Twitter. In a letter dated Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, Steven Buchholz of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s San Francisco Office, wrote that the judge handling a securities case against Musk encouraged both sides to confer before raising issues with the court.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Detroit, April 29 (AP) In the three days after Elon Musk engineered a deal to buy Twitter, he sold roughly 8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase.
Musk reported the sale of 9.6 million shares in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday and Friday. The trades were made at prices ranging from 822.68 to 999.13.
On Friday, shares of Tesla Inc. were going for around 904.50.
The world's richest man, who is the CEO of Tesla, tweeted Thursday night that he doesn't plan any further sales of the company's shares.
Twitter announced Monday that it had agreed to be purchased by Musk for 54.20 a share, or about 44 billion. Analysts said the deal could make Tesla investors nervous that Musk will be distracted by Twitter and less engaged in running the electric car company and have to sell a large number of Tesla shares to finance the acquisition. Musk is Tesla's largest shareholder.
On Tuesday, Tesla shares closed down 12%, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 8, 2020. The shares are up more than 3% Friday but still down 10% for the week.
Twitter shares rose to 49.72, up 1.2% but still well below the deal price.
Before Musk's deal for Twitter is completed, shareholders will have to weigh in. So will regulators in the U.S. and in countries where Twitter does business.
So far though, few hurdles are expected, despite objections from some of Twitter's own employees and from users who worry about Musk's stance on free speech and what it might mean for harassment and hate speech on the platform.
