Finance

Elon Musk diverts attention to Twitter as Tesla shares tumble in the wake of a stock split

No need to cry for this billionaire—he's still worth US$250.2 billion on paper

by Charlie Smith on August 30th, 2022 at 1:56 PM
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      One of the world's most famous CEOs, Elon Musk, is in the news again today in connection with Twitter.

      Musk is trying to back out of a US$44-billion takeover, filing documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission that cites information from a Twitter whistleblower. 

      What's attracting considerably less attention, however, is the sputtering stock price of the automaker that he runs.

      Musk is CEO of Tesla, which has seen its share price fall 6.7 percent over the past five days.

      That compares to a 3.98 percent decline for the NASDAQ Composite Index over the same period.

      On August 24, Tesla shares split 3:1. Since that date, it's been mostly downhill for the stock.

      It seems that Tesla shares have not responded well to Musk's stated goal of selling 20 million electric vehicles in 2030. That would be up from approximately 1.5 million EVs that it aims to sell in 2022.

      It's been a rough week for Tesla shareholders after a 3:1 stock split.

      Tesla's share price linked to Twitter financing

      In the past, Musk has cited the number of Twitter bots as justification for cancelling the takeover, which was priced at US$54.40 per share.

      Twitter closed today at US$39.32, down 1.8 percent.

      The New York Times has previously reported that Musk must pay off his entire margin loan to buy Twitter if Tesla's share price falls more than 40 percent from the day of the loan.

      Tesla's share price is currently about 25 percent lower than where it was trading when he arranged for the financing to buy Twitter.

      According to Forbes, Musk is worth US$250.2 billion, making him the richest businessman in the world.

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