Tesla boss Elon Musk sold further large packages of shares in the electric car manufacturer in the middle of his takeover attempt on Twitter. He sold a total of about 9.6 million Tesla shares this week, raising about $8.4 billion, according to SEC filings. After that, however, no further sales are planned for the time being, he wrote on Twitter on Friday night.
Musk did not give any reasons for the stock sales in several large transactions in the documents. According to the SEC filing, the tech billionaire monetized 4.4 million Tesla shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, and another 5.2 million on Thursday.
However, he has now committed to bringing in his own funds of up to $21 billion for the Twitter purchase. How exactly he wants to raise them is still unclear. Musk still holds a good 168 million Tesla shares after the recent sale. He wants to use part of it to secure a loan of 12.5 billion dollars, which is also intended to finance the Twitter deal.
Musk made a total of $46.5 billion in financing commitments for the Twitter purchase. He agreed to the takeover with the online service, but is still dependent on enough shareholders giving him his shares at a price of $54.20.