Summary
Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP sold its $585 million Tesla stake over concerns about Elon Musk’s “controversial and exceptionally high” pay package and unspecified labor conditions.
ABP previously voted against Musk’s performance-based compensation, which has faced shareholder lawsuits and judicial scrutiny.
A Delaware judge recently invalidated the pay package, citing insufficient shareholder approval.
While Tesla’s Model Y remains popular in the Netherlands, European sales fell 15% in 2024.
ABP stated the divestment was not politically motivated despite Musk’s ties to the Trump administration.
I don’t know if this is the article (its pay walled), or AI since it’s a summary, or maybe OP, but this is a terrible reporting of what happened.
The pay package was supposed to be independently created by the board, but it was found out that Elon had a heavy hand in proposing it, including the people helping him craft it. Now, I don’t think this is bad per say, but then the board was supposed to independently vet it, but the board wasn’t really deemed independent, and who they used had ties to Musk. Further, it wasn’t properly disclosed what involvement Musk had in crafting the package in the first place.
The failure to properly disclose all of this made the shareholder vote void. Had they disclosed it, and had it been approved, it would have been okay.
It had nothing to do with not having insufficient shareholder approval.
One more problem was that the various milestones had projections for likelihood and time to completion, but what they presented to the shareholders was different than their internal projections.
So not only did they think some of these milestones were likely, they lied to shareholders about how likely they were to make the package seem more difficult to achieve.
I knew (but forgot) they thought the 1st one was likely and didn’t disclose it, was it others as well?
I forget the exact number, but it was the first few. Maybe 3?
*per se
TIL, thanks.
Paying someone a billion dollars or more at a company should require unanimous shareholder approval. One nay should strike it down. It’s egregious and unnecessary.
A billion dollars can buy you a hundred people at 10 million a piece, that’s gonna get you a shitload of celebrity involvement and endorsement. The value of the shares in this asshole’s pay package is over 100 billion as of early December.
The shareholders chose to do it, it’s their company, they can do whatever they want with it (as long as they weren’t misled as the judge has ruled they were).
Trying to control what the shareholders do with their company like that is not the way to solve a problem. And if you don’t own any voting shares, then you have no reason to complain about what they decide to do.
The payment comes out of their pocket, by the devaluation of their stock, when the options are issued and vested. They went into it knowing they’d make a shit load of money if he pulled it off, and he’d make a shit load of money too. The stock has 25x’d since the package was created.
Edit: Just to be clear here - A better way would be through a high tax bracket that would eat the vast majority of that away forcing him to sell most of the shares (or I guess alternatively sell SpaceX shares, it’d be his choice), but keep in mind it’d be at the rate when each set vests, so it’s not a tax bill on 55b, it’s a series of tax bills on smaller amounts.