Tesla chair begs investors to bless Musk's billions or face an Elon exodus

With a week to go until Tesla's Annual Stockholders' Meeting, board chair Robyn Denholm has written to investors to make sure they ratify CEO Elon Musk's monster pay package – apparently out of fear he could walk. Under a 2018 deal widely seen as a publicity stunt because it verged on ridiculous, Musk would earn nothing from …

[Mike 137]

"The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

What extraordinary talent specifically?

[1] upsetting lots of staff by micromanagement?

[2] sacking anyone who argues with him?

[3] coming up with impractical concepts, attempts at the engineering of which soaks up millions?

[4] widely ignoring the health and safety of his engineering staff?

[5] etc.

I have a funny feeling that Tesla might actually do better in his absence.

[b0llchit]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

I have a funny feeling that Tesla might actually do better in his absence.

With me, that'd be at least two. However, by my guesstimate, many would wholeheartedly agree with the statement.

So, Hey, Musky person, please leave and let the door kick you on your way out.

[Michael Strorm]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

> please leave and let the door kick you on your way out

It's be a nice touch if- just as Elon was being escorted out with his personal crap in a cardboard box- someone came along and plonked a large, heavy porcelain object on top of the box, causing him to almost drop it. Then...

"Hey Elon... "

"Yeah?"

"Let that sink out!"

[UnknownUnknown]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

Although it doesn’t align exactly a swiftly removed urinal would be my suggestion.

[GBE]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

You forgot

[6] Goes into perpetual paranoid right-wing wacko mode — offending and driving away the main demographic that's buying electric vehicles.

I've certainly crossed Tesla of my list of cars to look at, and a large part of that decision is based on wanting in no way to provide support for or be associated with Elon Musk.

[neilg]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

But, but, this is EXTRAordinary compensation.

From the "You can't make this shit up department.

[Schultz]

Extraordinary compensation

He deserves extraordinary compensation. I believe paying him the 100-fold the yearly salary of his lowest paid employee should do it. If he wants more rewards, then he should invest his personal wealth into the stock with all the risks and rewards that Tesla offers to their shareholders. He should not take money out of the operational budget.

Musk definitely played a major role in drumming up the capital to make Tesla a serious car manufacturer. But it took an army of engineers and laborers to make it work and they all deserve their share of the rewards. Let's be serious, what will Musk do with those 50 billion that would benefit his shareholders or the wider society? Buy another Twitter?

[TheMeerkat]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

If they are OK with him removing his money out, they can try, but the chances are they have more to lose than he.

[Snake]

Re: offending and driving away the main demographic

That's a built-in feature of today's American businessperson: once they get both money and power, it is the only thing that matters and, most often, embracing [even] proto-totalitarianism is OK as long as it benefits profits. See: IG Farben.

So it's got a LOT of history behind it.

For example: Goya's CEO openly supported a candidate that openly called (some) Hispanics immigrants "murderers" and, whilst there was a uproar...it didn't last long, of course.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/business/goya-ceo-robert-unanue-silenced/index.html

A Hispanic-founded company, headed by a Spanish CEO, selling Hispanic-targeted foods, supporting a right-wing candidate who was openly anti-Hispanic immigrant.

You couldn't make today's world up from fantasy even if you tried.

And Goya isn't the only American company. Most companies that stated a support of "DEI" programs...were also, quietly, big donators to right-wing projects. It's called "Cutting it both ways", say both things simultaneously and playing the long-term money game - whichever side wins [this election cycle], we supported you!

TL,dr: Money only cares about Money. If you think they have ANY sense of morality...HAH! Oh, that's just *so* naive. :p

[mirachu]

Re: offending and driving away the main demographic

Also, remember that Musk was born in South Africa during apartheid to a billionaire family. That's not exactly a good starting point for a balanced world view.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: offending and driving away the main demographic

I'm no fan of Musk, but I don't think he was born to a "billionaire family". He seems to have started with enough money (originating from his father's share in an emerald mine) to take him to the US and let him do pretty much whatever he wanted for some years —an advantage most people don't have, including many people who are much smarter.

I agree that his background makes for a somewhat imbalanced world view.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: offending and driving away the main demographic

When and where he was born, a $million was a lot of money.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: offending and driving away the main demographic

Yes, seems to be conveniently overlooked all the time. Self made man in his story like a lot of others in the news.

[Not Yb]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

Bumper sticker seen on a local Tesla: "I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy" (possibly a bit paraphrased, but that's the gist)

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

Musk needs Tesla more than Tesla needs Musk. It really is that simple. Musk already owns Tesla stock worth over $70 billion. A lot of it is collateral for his epically stupid purchase of Twitter.

[Detective Emil]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

Apart from anything else, if he had not been around last week, Tesla's whacking GPU delivery (for which it presumably had a use it considered good for its bottom line) would not have been diverted to umm … something or other.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:They would be, they should be, but they won't be.talent takes extraordinary compensation"

Better off without him...

They would be, they should be, but they won't be.

The board is not independent enough to ensure an orderly transition to a competent and independent new CEO without wanton acts of corporate vandalism by Musk.

Or shareholders can reasonably frat such acts by this man child with a history of erratic behavior.

Would be do his best to burn it down on the way out, or have the board install a puppet, do something ridiculous we can't even comprehend because we are not wired like he is?

It's a very dangerous time to be a Tesla share holder.

[DS999]

RE: "I have a funny feeling that Tesla might actually do better in his absence"

I think that's almost guaranteed.

Tesla needed Musk to get going because it needed a lot of funding, and having a hype man talking it up brought in investors beyond just the fat wallet he brought himself. How much he actually helped in the ACTUAL getting things going we'll never know - he's obviously far too egotistical to be relied upon for his own account. Sometimes having an "asshole" who demands the impossible and often gets it (like Steve Jobs) is necessary, but now that Tesla is a going concern they need a Tim Cook type to straighten out all the issues like crooked body panels, schedule slippages, and overtly false claims about the near term capability of FSD.

When you have a CEO who alienates your main customer base (i.e. the people most likely to buy EVs are liberals who are very put off by his hard right turn to full on MAGA disciple) and insists on producing pointless fuckery like the Cybertruck when a normal pickup would have had a far larger potential audience in the US I think his sell-by date is well past. If he wants to leave, he can do so - and then he can no longer redirect Tesla's Nvidia orders elsewhere, make Tesla employees help out at X, etc.

Maybe it results in a share price drop in the short run if the people who think he's the second coming sell, but the long term prospects for Tesla's stock price are dim if he stays around. Especially if he massively dilutes shares to get his big wad he thinks he "deserves".

[bigtimehustler]

Re: RE: "I have a funny feeling that Tesla might actually do better in his absence"

What? Apple didn't need a Tim type, they had to have one. They would still have Steve if they could raise him from the dead.

[MachDiamond]

Re: RE: "I have a funny feeling that Tesla might actually do better in his absence"

I'm no fan of Tim Cook. He's turned Apple from a consumer electronics company into the iPhone company with little innovation since his boost to the CEO office. His proper position is head of the iPhone product line with somebody that has more vision in the CEO posting.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: RE: "I have a funny feeling that Tesla might actually do better in his absence"

On the whole, however, they seem to be doing OK. From a shareholder's PoV making profits is better than making news.

[EricM]

Re: What extraordinary talent?

I more and more come to the conclusion that the world is indeed inhabitated by a lot of people who do seem to apply only limited logical thinking to their day to day decisions.

Instead, they allow feelings, idols, stars, hypes, weird ideas - or "leaders" to steer their decisions - and I'm afraid they outnumber rational thinkers by far.

Musk's extraordinary talent IMHO is (much like Trump btw) to be recognized as a superstar, as a light figure, as an idol by the non-rationals.

Like an ancient, angry god out of fantasy novels, he is able to lead his believers where he sees fit - just by "x-ing" his remarks to his minions.

In todays world he is able to manipulate market capitalization of companies by this mechanism.

Nothing in the basics or outlook of Tesla stock seems to support its market value compared to other EV car companies.

In the opposite, Tesla seems to be micromanaged and lead in an erratic manner of hiring, firing, re-hiring, egomania and frequent "strategic" changes.

His believers nevertheless buy at such prices as ist is HIS stock, as HE can do no wrong.

In this situation, Musk leaving Tesla would probably pull the stock down to its market value based on basics like projected revenue, profit, etc. which would be cents on the dollar of its current valuation.

The board chair seems to be aware of that possibility.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: What extraordinary talent?

In todays world he is able to manipulate market capitalization of companies by this mechanism.

In the world of 2-3 years ago he was, because, like him, so many others were caught up in his Jobs-esque reality distortion field.

Since then, two masks have slipped: Musk's, whereby the generally liberal customer base of Tesla can see the bare-faced authoritarian behind the company; and Tesla's, since the stock and financial markets have noticed how much better than Tesla conventional and Chinese newcomer car manufacturers are doing EVs right now. Oh, and his decision to pay $44b for a website.

So now Tesla stockholders are being to judge their own self-interest against their perception of Musk's decision-making ability. Do they feel lucky?

[MachDiamond]

Re: What extraordinary talent?

"The board chair seems to be aware of that possibility."

Without Elon in management, how long would Robyn be part of the company? She doesn't seem to be anything more than a shill to keep Elon in power.

[Magani]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

""This is obviously not about the money...." Tesla Board Chairperson Robyn Denholm

Huh?? Of course it's about the money.

[TheMeerkat]

Re: "The thrust is that retaining Musk's extraordinary talent takes extraordinary compensation"

It is his money he can walk with do why do you behave like someone full of envy?

[Bebu]

The Birds (Aristophanes)

Even for a gaga nation this is cloud cuckoo land material.

How about ketamine lad sods off for five years and if Tesla's position improves he gets nowt and if it goes belly up ... well he still gets zilch. If Tesla survives but has gone backwards he can have whatever he manages to extract.

The sad and sorry truth is he will probably get these billions.

[Ace2]

“that was, and fundamentally still is, about retaining Elon's attention”

WTF is wrong with these people? Xitler spends 10 minutes a week on Tesla, tops.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Xitler spends 10 minutes a week on Tesla, tops.

And he spends it firing the people who generate the company's future income.

[JoeCool]

I wonder if that was compliant with the chairs statement

that "Fairness and respect require that we honor ..."

I hope that in the future all Tesla announcements and personel decisions will be viewed against that standard.

[Arthur the cat]

“that was, and fundamentally still is, about retaining Elon's attention”

Have they tried a laser pointer or a feather on a piece of string? Works for cats, but maybe we've got a longer attention span.

[Mark 85]

I think a laser pointer or feather might not be enough... perhaps some percussive maintenance on his head with large hammer? I suspect Elon's issue is that his ego is bigger than his brain.

[MachDiamond]

"Have they tried a laser pointer or a feather on a piece of string?"

Something a bit more post-pubescent might be required. Maybe Tesla can hire ladies from Las Vegas to staff his private jet (maybe they already do).

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe some of those nifty Neuralink implants?

[MachDiamond]

"WTF is wrong with these people? Xitler spends 10 minutes a week on Tesla, tops."

On average. He spends more time less frequently, but when he does, entire departments go missing.

[graeme leggett]

"Tesla is not a typical company"

In what way?

It has shareholders and a board, and employs people.

It makes products, and sells them...

Apart from the monstrous ego involved at the top, what makes it different structurally from another car company?

[Khaptain]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

It has shareholders and a board, and employs people.

It makes products, and sells them...

Apart from the monstrous ego involved at the top

Sounds like mos of Fortune 500 companies.

It would certainly have described Apple, Oracle, Facebook et al to a tee... I can't even begin to imagine what BlackRock etc or the large Pharma companies are like.

Then we have the government in the same position except they don't make anything, they only spend.

[Anna Nymous]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

> Then we have the government in the same position except they don't make anything, they only spend.

Nice roads you have there... same with sewer, and water lines, and power. Also, your code compliance folks that make sure that when stuff is done to your house, it won't bite you in the behind by burning your house down or causing massive amounts of water damage. How about them folks working for your health and safety board/organization making sure that folks working in (among places) factories and on those pretty roads get to do that work in a manner that increases their probability of a) being able to go home at the end of the day and b) doing the former in one piece.

I could go on but hopefully I have made my point.

Goodness, what an ignorant statement your last sentence was.

Taxes are the price you pay for a functioning society, not a perfect one, but a functioning one. It makes the things you never notice, work. And you never notice them /because/ they work... until they don't.

But all of those things cost money, so yes... government has to spend money on that because no-one else would otherwise. And those that claim would, would in the long run cost you more than when government is doing it.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

Some people read Libertarian Police Department and didn't realise it was satire.

And some of them also post on The Register.

[Casca]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

You have no clue how a country or government work...

[MachDiamond]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

"and employs people."

From time to time, anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

Apart from the monstrous ego involved at the top, what makes it different structurally from another car company?

Unlike the rest, Musk thinks he's a free agent. When was the last time Bezos, Buffett, Cook, Ellison, Gates, Nadella, Zuckerberg or the two Larrys ever criticized the Washington Blob in public. Even Jack Ma was sent for re-education by the CCP after he started to express unorthodox opinions in public.

[MachDiamond]

Re: "Tesla is not a typical company"

"When was the last time Bezos, Buffett, Cook, Ellison, Gates, Nadella, Zuckerberg or the two Larrys ever criticized the Washington Blob in public."

Jeff publicly commented that he stepped down from CEO at Amazon to spend time at Blue Origin for the reason that being CEO required 100% of his attention to do a good job. That's just between 2 companies. Elon's up to 5 big companies and threatening to start others in competition with what Tesla is doing. I'm amazed that he has raised so much for xAI when he might wind up in court for breaching his fiduciary duty to Tesla which he constantly says is an AI company and should be thought of that way. The threat to take IP from Tesla should anger all shareholders. That's their money he's talking about stealing for all of that work.

[Dinanziame]

It's going to be approved

The valuation of Tesla these days has more to do with Elon than with how many cars they sell. He claims Tesla will become an AI company. He claims Tesla will create robotaxis. As absurd as these sound, the stock jumps on every of his announcements. If he does not get his money and leaves Tesla aside, the stock will crash. People who own the stock don't want to see it crash. So they'll approve his $56B pay package.

[Julian 8]

Re: It's going to be approved

What they say about fools and money

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's going to be approved

The point is that here, people who own the stock are fools, but voting for the pay package is actually still in their interest. They trusted Elon with their money, and now he is holding them hostage.

[Khaptain]

Re: It's going to be approved

That's exactly what Broadcom have just done with VMware.

[mpi]

Re: It's going to be approved

Well, they could also just...sell?

[Shalghar]

Re: It's going to be approved

Pretty much this. As much as Teslaboy is loathed in this forum, the market "value" of Tesla is tied to his name and shenanigans.

As long as elon elons around, nobody seems to take a closer look at the persistent downsides of tesla vehicles, majorly the poor build quality and much more so the subobtimal battery design, with the BMS in each battery sub block not controlling single cells but several of them welded in parallel. Manufacturing tolerance of the cells will bite this kind of battery, no matter how much care was invested in matching voltages when welding them together.

The next stupid step from the 18650 standard cells (to be fair, it was a good idea in the starting phase to rely on standard cells to get the thing working as fast as possible, instead of going BYD and designing specific batteries) to this ridiculous "super cells" will worsen the issues of thermal buildup within the cell as a thicker cell is less able to dissipate heat into the surrounding coolant fluid. While a thicker round cell might have more capacity, the contact surface of anode and cathode are the issue here.

Now would be the time to really redesign the battery concept, use the "blade" cells from BYD to exchange coolant system with rectangular, more stable cells with way larger connectors or maybe even go solid state cell tech.

I assume, however, that this will not happen. Instead, i expect the elonic distract-a-bot will keep clowning around until he suddenly throws all his stock on the market and makes a snappy "i have my pockets filled, wish you a nice bancruptcy" bailout.

[MachDiamond]

Re: It's going to be approved

"the market "value" of Tesla is tied to his name and shenanigans."

Market Capitalization (market cap) isn't the same as value. Elon has been pumping the market cap, he's not incentivized to increase the value of the company.

[renniks]

Re: It's going to be approved

I can't wait till he gets done for fraud - just like yer wan Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos

[Denial Vanish]

Re: It's going to be approved

I disagree. I made the mistake of investing in Tesla last fall, only to watch Elon become increasingly unhinged and the stock take a nosedive--all due to his antics. I'd be the first "investor" to rejoice in his ousting. And it wouldn't surprise me in the least if, as soon as he goes, sales of Teslas go up when all the fence-sitting potential buyers finally breath a sigh of relief and can buy a Model 3 or Y without having to hold their noses with a pair of vice-grips.

[MachDiamond]

Re: It's going to be approved

"If he does not get his money and leaves Tesla aside, the stock will crash."

If he stays and continues with xAI and moving employees around like they work for him personally and not Tesla, the stacks of lawsuits are going to keep his private jet busy getting him to his court dates on time.

[Flocke Kroes]

Incentive

Imagine you have enough money for you, family and friends to live in luxury for the rest of your lives while indulging your expensive hobby: Kerbal Space Program with real rockets. On top of that you have $240B. Another $40B to put next to that $240B is not really an incentive to go to work and do anything constructive.

Musk's previous value to Tesla was telling lies on Twitter that many people used to believe. As his lawyers have said, no reasonable person would consider a Musk Tweet to be a source of factual information. We have already found there is a limit to the number of unreasonable people willing to buy more Tesla shares so Musk's current value to Tesla share holders is limited.

A more convincing sales pitch would be "Give me $40B or I will do to Tesla what I did to Twitter". It would be a solid argument too if he had not already made so much progress in that direction.

[renniks]

Re: Incentive

When Musk starts a sentence with 'I feel confident that...', you know the BS is about to flow

[DS999]

Re: Incentive

Narcissists often have a few phrases that are tells when the real bullshit is about to flow at max volume. Like with Trump when he starts a sentence "people are saying" or "so-and-so came to me, tears in their eyes" that phrase you highlighted is one of Musk's.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Incentive

You could shorten that to when he starts a sentence with "".

[MachDiamond]

Re: Incentive

"As his lawyers have said, no reasonable person would consider a Musk Tweet to be a source of factual information."

Yet, at the same time, Elon's Twitter account was listed with the SEC as a source of official Tesla information.

[Omnipresent]

You promise?

Don't be a tease.

[Felonmarmer]

Percentages

If Musk's deal is 136% of the profits made since the deal was made, then the rise in the share cap from $53B to $557.57B is 1,491% of the profits made in this time.

The whole lot is over inflated nonsense isn't it?

[Like a badger]

Re: Percentages

"The whole lot is over inflated nonsense isn't it?"

Absolutely. But it's a touch unusual this investment bubble is an Elonmania. All of your common or garden investment manias (AI, tech, classic cars, property, stocks, stamps, jojoba beans, railways, tulips etc) were based on the idea that multiple companies or products were worth more than they ever could be. But in this case it's not about Tesla's now very ordinary product, it's about the man. More religion than mania perhaps.

The nearest comparators to Elonmania could be the life's great works of Charles Ponzi or Bernie Madoff. Or perhaps the South Sea Bubble, which was almost entirely a single company - but where was the venerated leader in the South Sea Bubble you ask? Well, that would be King George I, who became governor of the South Sea Company in 1718, when the share price was about £120. What could be more compelling than investing in a business overseen by His Sovereign Majesty? Within two years it had climbed on no foundations to £950, from where it rocked gently down to £700, before completely collapsing in September 1720.

So there you have the question: Is Elon a modern day King George? Or more like Ponzi and Madoff?

[trevorde]

The next big (Tesla) thing

Can't wait for RoboTaxi on Aug 8 to send Tesla stock into the stratosphere!

[MachDiamond]

Re: The next big (Tesla) thing

"Can't wait for RoboTaxi on Aug 8 to send Tesla stock into the stratosphere!"

Elon's words were "we'll have something to show". More CGI or highly controlled test parameters would qualify as "something to show". Maybe it will be more screen shots of an app. I'll place bets with very long odds it won't be video of a person that had pimped out their robo-taxi holding a bucket of soapy water and cleaning out a load of sick from their car after a Friday night of taking people home from the bars. There won't be images of graffiti carved into the interior. No dramatized vignette of an owner getting a midnight call that they car freaked out and is sitting in the middle of an intersection downtown.

I won't bet against a jump in stock price after the presentation. That's how He's kept the share price over odds for such a long time. I'm always curious what will be the next thing to promise when he needs money or a distraction. Revolutionary HVAC, anybody?

[Winkypop]

Wave him off

Give him a bicycle

Hire a taxi

Build a trebuchet

Anything.

Just be rid!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wave him off

Trebuchet, please. But not a manky old wood one. I want it to be a huge techno trebuchet, at least 400 feet tall, and flicking him off at a skin peeling Mach 2. Ideally facing a nice big cliff.

The base of Beachy Head would be perfect, and the white cliff would make for a proper spectacle.

[Fred Flintstone]

Re: Wave him off

Why am I immediately reminded of the Gary Lawson cartoon 'When jellyfish travel at unsafe speed"?

:)

[Shalghar]

Re: Wave him off

May i suggest some kind of linear accelerator or rail gun ?

Much more hightechy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wave him off

Good thinking that man. Railgun on a floating platform (he may have some spare) at Royal Sovereign, and demonstrate pin point accuracy by hitting the cliff mid way up, just below it's highest point. Might have to watch the launching G forces, because whilst it's about fifteen miles to lob the package, we want it intact when it hits the cliff.

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Floating platforms

Ah, but which one? Of Course I Still Love You, or Just Follow The Instructions?

[vogon00]

Re: Wave him off

Given the 'spin' he tries to impart, the best way to get rid of him - to a sensible distance - appears to be this...!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wave him off

Better make sure the outer lid is not operated then by someone who is annoyed with Tesla or Musk, or it won't open and ends up with a Musk-shaped dent in it.

:)

[MachDiamond]

Re: Wave him off

"Given the 'spin' he tries to impart, the best way to get rid of him - to a sensible distance - appears to be this...!"

He'd have to be containerized since he'd be goo before release.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Wave him off

Starship IFT-5.

Hal, open the Pez dispenser door, please.

[Howard Sway]

Motivating someone like Elon requires something different

Well get him a bouncy castle, a dominatrix and a barrel of goose fat then, instead of all that boring old cash.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Motivating someone like Elon requires something different

I volunteer to trial that.

[Shalghar]

Re: Motivating someone like Elon requires something different

There might be some ideas in the novel "making money" from Terry Pratchett. Especially in the cupboard in the bank managers suite....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Motivating someone like Elon requires something different

Well, he likes X, so XXX is thrice more, no?

:)

[JoeCool]

I love that the chair is such a sock puppet.

This is a master class in the meaningless slogan "maximize value for the shareholders"

[MachDiamond]

Re: I love that the chair is such a sock puppet.

"This is a master class in the meaningless slogan "maximize value for the shareholders""

The C-Level and BoD are shareholders, right?

[Rgen]

If he promise to leave, I will vote NO for sure.

[spuck]

I'm no fan of PT Musk, but at face value the agreement seems pretty cut-and-dried: his compensation was based on meeting a performance goal, and public record (i.e., the stock market) shows he met that goal. If they do renege on their agreement, it will be interesting to see it in court.

[lglethal]

Did you miss the fact that the court already ruled the initial deal was illegal and invalid?

Keep in mind that he was offered a humongous deal by a board made up of his family and friends. There was no way they were going to offer him something that was hard to do. My guess the firms internal projections already said they were going to hit the target with ease, and so they talked down there chances of doing it, sold it as an impossible task, but never doubted they were going to do it.

Whatever the case though, a court had already ruled the previous contract illegal, so there is no recourse for Musky, as you seem to be implying...

[MachDiamond]

"Keep in mind that he was offered a humongous deal by a board made up of his family and friends. There was no way they were going to offer him something that was hard to do."

The board didn't offer him the deal. Elon presented the deal TO them. The judge found that the BoD didn't do any negotiation and didn't fully disclose to shareholders that the first milestones would have been met with a farm animal housed in the corner office along with other information that was determined to be very material to making a decision. There was also the size of the package. Publicly traded companies are held to much stricter standards when it comes to protecting shareholders. Many shareholders are going to be second hand through retirement and investment funds. Anybody can buy publicly traded stocks without having to show financial competence which differs in the US for those investing in privately held companies, perhaps elsewhere too.

Elon's rewards were based on market cap, not real company value. This has made it easy to pump and dump. The board has sold off a lot of their stock and hasn't bought back in since it peaked. High level execs have sell orders that execute when options/stock they have vests. Elon could have sold a bunch of stock at peak, exercised options for pennies on the dollar buying back in and be holding an even bigger slice of Tesla if he hadn't set all of that money on fire buying Twitter.

[spuck]

Since the court has already ruled the contract illegal, why is the board of director's spokeshole saying they need to honor it? I'm curious how they hope to thread that needle.

[JoeCool]

i you ever go to work for a business

you'll quickly learn how easily and often they circumvent agreements, both explicit and implicit.

[CowHorseFrog]

What makes you think Musk should take ALL the credit for any positives thata Tesla has achieved ?

I thought Tesla had thousnads of workers and i thought they all did some work to contribute what it achieves ?

Way to steal all the hard work of those people and pretend its all Musk, and people say slavery of 1860 is gone.

[MachDiamond]

"Way to steal all the hard work of those people and pretend its all Musk, and people say slavery of 1860 is gone."

And we look back on the era of Robber-Barons with romantic notions. Just like how the vast majority of Elon's "inventions" are recycled from ages ago (Hyperloop/VacTrain), he's read up on how the railroad magnates fleeced loads of investors by selling them worthless stock on big promises and tracts of land where stations would be built and weren't.

[spuck]

I don't think any such thing. I think Musk is a charlatan whose best talent is figuring out how to leverage government subsidies into mythical profit. But I'm not Tesla's board of directors (or at least a vocal minority of it) who apparently do think that.

[CowHorseFrog]

Exactly Musk must have studied Branson and made a few changes and has a very good run so far.

[Doctor Syntax]

The board were making a deal* with other peoples' money. A company is owned by its shareholders, therefore it was their money, not the board's. If, now, the shareholders vote to reinstate the deal it will be their decision as to what to do with their money. They have that right,** the board didn't.

* For some versions of "making" and "deal". The "a" seems OK.

** And, of course, the right not to do s

[CowHorseFrog]

Your summary is broken, You forget that most of the small shareholders effectivetly have zero say in the final decision as the majority of votes belong to institutions who are run by other corporate leades who know the boys club and how to play the game.

Its kind of how in america, big corp pays donations for gov to make favourable laws, which basically eliminate all the small nobodies in america land.

[Pascal Monett]

board chair Robyn Denholm

Top line on his Curriculum : Whore.

Should be a shoe-in for the Republican Party. I wonder when he's going to start supporting Trump ?

[Dog Eatdog]

Re: board chair Robyn Denholm

shoo-in.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: board chair Robyn Denholm

Yes, it's shoo-in, shoe-out where the shoe is really a boot, of course.

[chivo243]

Tesla chair begs investors to bless Musk's billions or face an Elon exodus

and the problem is? I'd do the job for 10% of his salary: I can be childish, do drugs, berate people for little or no reason and beg for more money. I'm even older, and can use my senior moments to my advantage!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tesla chair begs investors to bless Musk's billions or face an Elon exodus

I'd do the job for 10%, even if I had to spend 50% of that 10% on expert advice as to what I should be doing.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Tesla chair begs investors to bless Musk's billions or face an Elon exodus

How does an idiot pick or select an expert on any topic when they have basically no understanding of the topic at hand ?

How exactly can the idiot ask the right questions or review anything ?

How does someone who doesnt speak french actually review the work of a person who writes in french ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shareholder alleged the award was excessive?

June 2024: “The legal team that voided Elon Musk's record Tesla pay package deserves a tiny fraction of the $5.6 billion legal fee they requested because their lawsuit provided almost no benefit for the company, the electric automaker argued in court papers on Friday.”

“The legal team that brought the case asked McCormick to order Tesla to pay them with about 29 million Tesla shares”

[Blackjack]

Let it leave, let it leave

Won't give him even more

Let it leave, let it leave

Turn away and slam the door

I don't care what he is going to say

Let the manchild rage on

He burned Twitter twice over anyway

[computing]

This is getting tiresome

Elon is obviously instrumental at Tesla - both for good and for bad. So a fair compensation is Tesla just tithes Elon its profits.

Not pay him based rise in Tesla's market cap -- that funny-money instrument open to abuse by a board which owns much stock. Pay him from profits.

Pay him 10% of profits.

If 10 isn't enough, give him 20%. Or 40%.

[Anonymous Coward]

The best Elon is No Elon

Let him take his bat and ball and toodle off...

[Anonymous Coward]

Egotistical

Loser

Owed

Nothing

[CowHorseFrog]

Musk is the pinnacle of what America praises and admires.

Watch any media outlet, who are they always praising ? CEOS.

WHy are they praising them ?

GOd knows, its certainly not for actually anything brilliant in technology or vision or science, the only reason they actual skil ceos portray is lying, bullshiting and paying stealing money from poor people so they can give themselves bonses.

THis is what you get when your society is morally bankrupt and promotes this sort of people.

[Roopee]

"making our planet more sustainable"

Since when was anything Elon Musk has done had anything to do with making our planet more sustainable?

I am completely against the resource-hogging endeavours to put people into space (at least until we've managed to colonise the deep ocean and act as if we understand that we're part of an ecosystem), but I'd be tempted to make an exception for this narcissistic, egotistical idiot.

[herman]

Motivation

I can be motivated for only one billion.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Motivation

Wow, what a bargain. Only $4.73mn/hour based on 2112 paid hours per year (holidays included).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Motivation

Paid holiday? that sounds un-American