Elon Musk asks Twitter to vote on whether to sell Tesla stock

The chief executive’s social media stunt could cost the company over US$50 billion

Tesla investors prepared for its chief Elon Musk’s proposed sale of about a tenth of his holdings in the electric-car maker following a weekend Twitter poll he posted asking followers what to do with his shares.

Musk, the world’s richest person, tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10 per cent of his stake if users of the social media network approved the proposal.

The Twitter poll asking Musk’s followers if he should sell stock garnered more than 3.5 million votes, and 57.9 per cent of the people voted “Yes.”

“I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock,” Musk wrote along with his poll . “I was prepared to accept either outcome.”

The electric-vehicle maker’s shares were down at US$1,167.66 in early trading, and if the losses hold, it would wipe off about US$54 billion from the company’s market value.

Last month, Tesla breached a trillion dollars in market capitalization, becoming the fifth U.S. company to join a club which includes Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.

“The dip is not going to last too long, because Tesla has had such a phenomenal record of bouncing back from these sort of selloffs,” said David Madden, markets analyst at Equiti Capital in London.

Known for his Twitter banter, announcements and lively interactions with followers, Musk has had his share of run-ins with financial regulators.

The billionaire was fined US$20 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for tweeting in 2018 that he was considering taking Tesla private at US$420 a share and had secured funding. The SEC also asked him to step down as chairman.