Elon Musk sold nearly $7 billion worth of
Tesla Inc.
TSLA -2.44%
stock in recent days, regulatory disclosures show, amid uncertainty over the fate of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc.
Mr. Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and largest shareholder, sold around 7.9 million shares between Friday and Tuesday, the disclosures show, leaving him with a 15% stake in the company.
The Tesla boss has been on a selling spree over the past year, during which he has cashed out roughly $32 billion worth of shares in the electric-vehicle maker. That includes around $8.5 billion of sales in April, while Mr. Musk was lining up financing to take over Twitter. At the time, he tweeted: “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”
Neither Tesla nor Mr. Musk responded to a request for comment.
Mr. Musk has since tried to walk away from buying Twitter, which is suing him to enforce the takeover. The case is headed to court in October.
If the judge were to force Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction, he could be on the hook for more than $33 billion in equity financing, according to a regulatory filing. He already owns more than 9% of Twitter, valued at roughly $4 billion at $54.20 a share, Mr. Musk’s buyout price.
Asked on Twitter if he was done selling shares, Mr. Musk tweeted, “Yes.” (He also said in April that he wasn’t planning additional sales.)
On Tuesday, he added: “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.”
If the Twitter deal doesn’t close, Mr. Musk would buy Tesla stock again, he said. He also suggested he might set up his own social-media platform—X.com—if the deal falls through. He said before agreeing to buy Twitter that he was “giving serious thought” to such an endeavor.
Mr. Musk, whose net…
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