A $56 billion question that has been hanging over the company will finally be answered by Tesla shareholders today: can CEO Elon Musk continue to get his pay record?
Even while some on Wall Street believe Musk will win the large compensation deal, there will be a struggle to get it, and as the final votes are scheduled to be counted this Thursday afternoon, the drama surrounding Musk is getting more intense.
To recap: Musk’s all-stock compensation plan, which was granted in 2018, has been the subject of controversy. Earlier this year, a Delaware court invalidated it, ruling that the $56 billion award was not approved “in the best interests” of Tesla shareholders by the board of Tesla.
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Since then, Musk and the board of Tesla, chaired by Robyn Denholm, have been adamantly urging Tesla shareholders to accept a recently proposed compensation package that closely resembles the initial 2018 award that the judge overturned.
Musk and Tesla are facing numerous challenges on the eve of such outcomes.
The Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island (ERSRI) filed a new lawsuit in Delaware late on Tuesday, accusing Musk and his brother Kimbal of using insider information to sell a total of $30 billion in stock. Specifically, the lawsuit claims that the two brothers knew that the proceeds would be used to finance Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, which is now known as X, and that they also knew that Tesla’s car deliveries had fallen short of expectations.
In the meantime, Elon Musk reportedly attended recent meetings with investors, including “Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock, alongside Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm and others,” and proxy counsel Glass Lewis in order to garner support for Musk’s compensation plan, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As if that weren’t enough, late on Tuesday night the Journal released an exposé in which they claimed Musk had multiple inappropriate encounters with staff members at SpaceX, the rocket and spaceship firm he established and continues to lead as CEO.
On Wednesday, eight former employees of SpaceX filed a complaint against Musk in state court in California, saying, among other things, that Musk’s actions produced a “unwelcome hostile work environment” and engaging in sexual harassment.