Tesla shares fell more than 3% on Friday, cutting CEO Elon Musk's fortune by $10 billion after the automaker voted to approve a compensation plan that could bring the world's richest man $1 trillion over the next decade, Forbes reports, writes UNN.
Details
Tesla shares fell 3.6% to about $429.70 at midday Friday in the US, extending a two-day losing streak after falling 3.5% on Thursday ahead of Tesla's shareholder vote.
More than 75% of Tesla shareholders voted Thursday to approve Musk's pay package, despite opposition from some of the automaker's largest shareholders.
The compensation agreement provides Musk with over 423 million additional shares, increasing his equity to approximately 25% if Tesla achieves several goals over the next decade, including increasing Tesla's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion and selling 12 million more Tesla vehicles.
Musk remains the richest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $481.4 billion, after a $10 billion (2%) drop amid falling Tesla shares. He became the first person whose fortune reached $500 billion, and before that, $400 billion earlier this year, as the rise in Tesla shares helped him further outpace Larry Ellison ($289.7 billion), whose fortune briefly approached Musk's after Oracle's surge in September.
Other losses were recorded among the world's richest people, including Ellison, whose fortune fell by $9.1 billion, in addition to declines in the fortunes of Jeff Bezos (3rd place) (by $2 billion), Larry Page (4th place) ($5.6 billion), Sergey Brin ($5.2 billion), and Mark Zuckerberg (6th place) ($2.6 billion).
Addition
Tesla shares are up 14% for the year, recovering from losses earlier in the year, as the automaker faced widespread protests against Musk's involvement in the Trump administration. Tesla outlined a new compensation package for Musk in September, stating in a regulatory filing that Musk "raised the possibility" that he might leave the company if he was not guaranteed greater voting rights.