Elon Musk Sells $4 Billion in Tesla Stock Ahead of Twitter Purchase

thewrap.com:

disclosed in SEC filings on Thursday. Musk said Thursday that he doesn’t plan to sell off any more shares in the government-subsidized car company.According to the SEC filing, Musk initiated the sales on April 26, the day after his bid to acquire Twitter was announced.

The shares were sold off piecemeal between then and today, for amounts as low as $872.02 and as high as $999.13.It’s unclear why Musk sold the shares, which don’t come close to covering the $44 billion he’ll spend to buy Twitter.

Twitter’s board agreed to sell the company to Musk on Monday. Musk’s pitch before the board agreed to his $44 billion takeover was that the only way to transform the company’s growth prospects was to take Twitter private so it will no longer be beholden to shareholders.

He said the stock market’s gyrations from short-term events like Thursday’s lackluster results is a result of investors’ influence on management, which reduces innovation.Nearly 90% of Twitter’s revenue is derived from advertising, which amounted to $4.5 billion out of a total revenue of some $5 billion in 2021.