Tesla CEO Elon Musk has again sold shares of his electric car company, according to regulatory filings. As of Friday, the chief executive has sold 7.9 million shares, totaling about $6.9 billion. This is the first time Musk has sold shares of Tesla since April, when he liquidated 9.6 million shares, worth about $8.5 billion.
Musk looks set to sell shares to hoard cash in case he’s forced to make his $44 billion takeover of Twitter. The CEO tweeted Tuesday night that he’s done selling for the moment.
“In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this transaction to close and some equity partners do not pass, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” Musk tweeted.
Last month, Musk tells Twitter he’s killing the deal because he believes the social media company was wrong in its bot calculations. Over the weekend, however, the chief executive was a bit shaken, tweets: “If Twitter had only provided a method to sample 100 of their accounts and how they were confirmed to be real, the deal would have been conducted on the original terms. However, if it turns out their SEC filing is materially wrong, it shouldn’t be.”
Musk also tweeted Tuesday night that if the Twitter deal doesn’t close, he’ll buy back his stock. Maybe he’ll wait until Tesla issues a three-to-one stock split, which Tesla shareholders approved last weekso he can buy them back cheaply.
Over the past 10 months, Musk has sold about $32 billion worth of Tesla stock.
Tesla shares are down 2.44% today but are trading relatively flat after business hours, suggesting that stock sales have yet to affect Tesla’s share price. Tesla shares took a hit late last year when Musk sold off more than $16 billion worth of sales after polling fans on Twitter about whether he should cut his stake. his or her own, a move that gets him involved hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This article has been updated with confirmation from Elon Musk that the stock sale is related to his Twitter acquisition.
