Elon Musk Sells Another $1bn Of Tesla Shares

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has sold another $1.01 billion of shares in the electric carmaker.

Gatekeepers News reports that Musk, the world’s richest person, had in November sold $5 billion of Tesla shares after he ran a Twitter poll on whether to sell 10 percent of his holdings which would represent about 1.7 percent of the company’s outstanding stock.

“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” he had asked his followers.

The poll garnered over 3.5 million votes and about 57.9 percent voted in favour of Musk selling a 10 percent chunk of his holdings.

According to regulatory filings on Thursday, Musk got rid of about 934,000 shares in the latest transaction, advancing toward the goal of selling 10 percent of his stake in the electric-car maker.

Bloomberg reports that the sales were to help him offset taxes on the exercise of about 2.1 million options.

Musk, with a $284.1 billion fortune, still remains the richest in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth has surged by $128.1 billion this year as Tesla shares have climbed 54 percent.