The shareholders of the Tesla group, gathered in a general meeting in Austin (Texas), where the headquarters of the electric vehicle manufacturer is located, approved the resolution relating to the new remuneration plan for CEO Elon Musk with over 75% of the votes: a group manager announced this. This “remuneration package”, lasting ten years, is made up of twelve tranches that set financial and operational thresholds which, upon the occurrence of certain conditions, allow the assignment of group shares to the richest man in the world. In this way, Musk could receive over 1,000 billion dollars if he were to reach these goals. Shareholders were asked to decide whether Musk’s $1 trillion payout was adequate or excessive. At stake was the future of the electric car giant: if the compensation approved and proposed by the board of directors had not passed, the risk was the billionaire’s farewell from leading the company. Musk had in fact threatened to leave his creation in the event of a rejection, effectively putting shareholders faced with a choice: deciding whether the risk of losing him as CEO outweighed the governance and social concerns of awarding the richest man in the world what will now be the largest corporate salary in history. Several shareholders had already revealed their voting intentions. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund had already said it would vote ‘no’, as had the largest American pension fund Calpers. Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley and the Florida public pension fund were instead in favor of the maxi-compensation to Musk. Crucial to the outcome of the votes are Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street, the three largest shareholders with 7.5%, 4% and 3.4% respectively. Tesla board chairwoman Robyn Denholm had spent the past few weeks trying to convince investors to vote in favor of Musk, warning them of an uncertain future if the billionaire were to leave. It is not the first time that the compensation of the owner of Tesla has ended up in the storm. Last year a Delaware judge rejected the 56 billion package that Tesla had guaranteed him for achieving goals that seemed unattainable in 2018, when they were set. Musk had not only hit them but had largely exceeded them. Under the new compensation package, Musk will not receive any salary or bonus but will cash out shares when Tesla reaches certain market capitalization goals over ten years. To pocket the huge amount of 1,000 billion, Musk will have to manage to make Tesla worth 8,500 billion, more than eight times what it is worth now. And it will have to commit, among other things, to putting one million autonomous taxis and one million robots on the roads. If he succeeds, not only will he become a super-scrooge but he will also find himself with almost 29% of Tesla, an extraordinary level of control for a CEO. Musk has repeatedly explained that what interests him is not money but greater control of Tesla so as to protect it from short selling.
John
John, founder of Odnako, combined his journalism degree with technical expertise to revolutionize global news consumption. Before Odnako's 2011 launch, he gained diverse experience across the media and tech fields, setting a solid foundation for his mission to provide comprehensive, unbiased news. His vision and leadership have since established Odnako as a trusted, innovative news platform worldwide.