Twitter poll calls on Elon Musk to sell 10% stake in Tesla
More than 3.5 million Twitter users voted in the poll,
launched by Mr Musk on Saturday, with nearly 58% voting in favour of the share
sale.
The vote could see him dispose of nearly $21bn (£16bn) of
stock in the electric carmaker.
He has promised to abide by the result, in response to a
"billionaires tax" proposed by US Democrats.
But Mr Musk, one of the world's richest men, has yet to
comment publicly on the verdict, or how and when he would sell his stake.
Should he go ahead with the sale, it could leave him with a
huge tax bill.
When disposing of large share holdings, some chief
executives use so-called "blind" sales programmes, spreading the sale
over a long time period to avoid accusations of insider trading.
In an earlier tweet on Saturday, Mr Musk said he took no
salary or bonuses from any of his companies - meaning he has no earnings on
which to pay income tax.
But he has made billions of dollars through a compensation
package, which gives him power to exercise large amounts of stock options when
the company meets performance targets and its shares hit certain prices.
Mr Musk has an option, which expires in August next year, to
buy 22.86 million Tesla shares at $6.24 each - a fraction of Tesla's closing
share price on Friday of $1,222.
Under plans proposed by the Democratic Party in the Senate,
billionaires could be taxed on "unrealised gains" when the price of
their shares goes up - even if they do not sell any of their stock.
It is thought the proposed tax on capital gains, whether or
not assets have been sold, could hit about 700 billionaires in the US. Critics
have pointed out that the value of assets do not always go up.
Mr Musk's recent Twitter poll has raised some eyebrows in
the world of finance.
"We are witnessing the Twitter masses deciding the
outcome of a $25B coin flip," Venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya wrote
on Twitter.
"Looking forward to the day when the richest person in
the world paying some tax does not depend on a Twitter poll," Berkeley
economist Gabriel Zucman tweeted.
Mr Musk is one of the most popular business leaders on Twitter, with nearly 63 million followers.
He regularly uses the platform to share updates from the
companies he owns - including SpaceX and Neuralink. He is also known for sharing
memes, adding to his popularity among fans.
But some posts have drawn controversy.
Earlier this year he tweeted in response to a claim, made by
the head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), that just 2% of Mr Musk's wealth
could help to solve world hunger.
In October, Mr Musk said he would sell $6bn in Tesla stock
and donate it to the WFP, provided it could describe "exactly how $6bn
will solve world hunger".
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