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Musk has committed a $21 billion cash contribution to takeover social media platform
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk sold $8.5 billion worth of shares in the electric carmaker, which is estimated will help the billionaire finance his planned purchase of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR).
In SEC filings posted on Thursday and Friday, Musk said he sold about 9.6 million shares this week or about 5.6% of his stake in the company.
Musk on Thursday tweeted, "no further TSLA sales planned after today".
The share sales came after the billionaire settled a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion in cash.
Musk, whose net worth is $268 billion, said he would provide a $21 billion equity commitment as part of the financing agreement for the deal.
The sale of Tesla stocks is the first in 2022 since he offloaded $16.4 billion worth of shares in November and December after polling his Twitter followers about selling 10% of his stake.
Later Musk said that he would pay over $11 billion in taxes in 2021 due to his exercise of stock options set to expire this year.
Some investors have been worried that the billionaire may not have sufficient money at his disposal to fund the $21 billion cash contribution and could walk away from the deal.
Tesla shares have dropped nearly 14% since Musk disclosed that he took more than a 9% stake in Twitter on April 4.
As part of the takeover deal, Musk also took a $12.5 billion margin loan tied to his Tesla stock. He had already borrowed against around half of his Tesla shares.
Picture Credit: BBC
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