Norway pension fund doesn't want to pay Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla performance bonus

[Beerfloat]

It's obvious you're not a shareholder.
[A load of the usual fawning removed]

I'm starting to worry you're being held hostage in Elon Musk's basement.
Give us a signal and we'll alert the swat team.

 

[Endymio]

I'm starting to worry you're being held hostage in Elon Musk's basement.
Give us a signal and we'll alert the swat team.

Snark doesn't substitute for facts and logic, son. I've been accused on this board of "being held hostage" by, among others, Intel, Apple, NVidia, cable companies, drug manufacturers, and essentially every corporation in America. In short, the usual targets attacked by the weak-minded, ignorant, and misinformed. Then people are always surprised when they find me supporting their viewpoint in those rare cases -- perhaps 1 in 20 -- where the facts actually support the criticisms being levelled.

I'd be really nervous if my pension fund kept my money in Tesla lol

Had you invested a mere $10K when Musk took over the CEO position of Tesla, your investment would now be worth some $4.1M. It's dropped in the last year -- but far less than the stocks of all other EV makers.

 

[hover389]

Too much money? it was already agreed upon many years ago. You dont get to turn your back on agreement made to someone who said that he gets paid nothing unless he pulls off a miracle, but then when he pulls off a miracle then you think the pay is too much. That's absolutely BS

 

[hover389]

Everything's so wrong... a single person that receive 50b+ for what? lol
he's just a bully.

For an agreement made years ago that if he pulled off an absolute miracle then he would get paid that much. This isnt hard

 

[Kashim]

Musk is a founder and primary investor.

Musk is NOT a founder of Tesla. This is a common misconception. Also, he's NOT a primary investor. He was awarded hundreds of millions of Tesla stock, which is not the same as being an investor and putting your own money into a company.

 

[Kashim]

The same tired old socialist anti-logic, sigh.

Just because someone doesn't believe that the top 1% ultra rich jerks like Musk should control 99% of the world's wealth does not make them a socialist. The fact that the middle class is slow disappearing in our current late stage capitalist system should concern you.

People like Musk have an insatiable appetite for money. If you gave him the entire world's wealth he'd still want more. But you seem to think this is ok and there should be no limit on how much wealth one person can accumulate.

This is the typical "trickle down economy" mentality that's infected conservatives back in the Reagan era. Let's give the wealthy as much money as possible through massive tax cuts and relaxed regulations, because they create jobs and the money will trickle down to regular people.

When Trump took office his first order of business was to give corporations and the rich massive tax cuts. He increased the deficit by a trillion dollars in his first six months in office. No wonder the rich want to give him a second term.

Did all that extra money the rich got end up helping regular people by giving them higher wages or better benefits? Of course not. They hid all that money in tax havens, gave CEOs massive bonuses, and used it for stock buy backs to increase their own net worth.

The rich always get richer and the average person gains nothing. So yeah, let's just give Musk another $60 billion (or whatever ridiculous amount he's demanding) because why not? The poor guy worked for Tesla for 10 years for free... Let's forget about the fact that the value of Tesla increased dramatically during that time which in turn massively inflated Musk's net worth because he owns so much Tesla stock. But like I said, no amount of money is ever enough for people like Musk.

 

[Endymio]

Musk is NOT a founder of Tesla. This is a common misconception. Also, he's NOT a primary investor. He was awarded hundreds of millions of Tesla stock, which is not the same as being an investor and putting your own money into a company.

Wrong on all counts. Musk joined Tesla within months of its original incorporation, when the company was nothing but an idea. He became its largest investor at that time (2004), putting nearly $7M of his money into seed capital. He continued to invest his own money into the firm, culminating in 2008, when the company's impending bankruptcy forced him to pour literally every cent he had into the firm, and then assumed the CEO role. He also spent several years literally sleeping nights on the firm's factory floor, to bring their first cars to market.

I'll also note that all Tesla's major advances -- those which allowed it to become the first, and still the only automaker on the planet to profitably produce EVs -- were huge gambles made by Musk that paid off, gambles that industry observers widely predicted would fail: from his 'gigapress' manufacturing technique to producing his own batteries, rather than relying on third party sources. Had Musk followed the usual CEO path of "listening to the experts" -- Tesla would now be bankrupt, like every other EV maker before and after it.

 

[Endymio]

When Trump took office his first order of business was to give corporations and the rich massive tax cuts. He increased the deficit by a trillion dollars in his first six months in office.

You've been reported for disinformation. The deficit in the first six months of 2017 was $332B, much less than the $708B deficit during the first six months of Obama or the $1,386 deficit during the first six months of Biden. Even if we roll all these forward a year to when the first budgets under those presidents took force, the rankings don't change: Trump is below both Biden and Obama.

And according to the US GAO, Trump's tax overhaul saved Middle Class families more than $4,000 per year in taxes:

"...An analysis of the IRS tax [data] shows that filers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $15,000 to $50,000 enjoyed an average tax cut of 16 percent to 26 percent in 2018, the first year Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went into effect ... Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received a tax break of about 15 percent to 17 percent, and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 in adjusted gross income saw their personal income taxes cut by around 11 percent to 13 percent. .....the average tax cut for brackets starting at $1 million was less than 6 percent. .."

Furthermore, Trump's tax cuts actually increased government revenues at the same time taxes were cut. The problem, of course, was that Congress increased spending even faster than revenues rose.

Federal Government Revenues:
2017: $3.32 trillion
2018: $3.33 trillion
2019: $3.46 trillion

 

[Rudyduu]

Actually, this would be great for investors because it would force a stock buy back. Stock buy backs are a tool companies use to increase the price of stocks while also being a tax write off.

Also, they agreed to this deal several years ago, Tesla's stock has gone up and it is the board who is in breach of contract.

I'm tired if hearing about this because this is so beyond being a Musk issue. The issue is that the board at Tesla is making deals and not following through with them.

If you remove Musk from this situation and read the situation as "Tesla won't follow through on $53 billion contract" the whole dynamic of it changes.

Don't forget that. They're trying to make Musk the bad guy, but if they didn't make that contract several years ago, Musk probably would not be working at Tesla now. He has 3 other business, 2 of which are extremely successful. He probably doesn't even care about whether or not he's the CEO of Tesla, he's the CEO of 2 other companies and flat out owner of the third.

Tesla is the bad guy here regardless of Musk being the billionaire man child that he is. Tesla willingly made a deal with Musk, Musk fullfilled the terms of the contract on his end(it was a bonus if Musk fullfilled his end of the bargain, he did) and it's time for Tesla to pay.

Musk has direct influence over the board of directors and the board isn't looking after the shareholders, so yes it is Musk's doing. The board knew the company was on track to hit the "impossible" benchmarks they told the shareholders about and they created a compensation package that would benefit Musk a lot more than it would benefit the shareholders, which is against their fiduciary responsibilities. The board of directors are made up of people with direct ties to Musk.

For an agreement made years ago that if he pulled off an absolute miracle then he would get paid that much. This isnt hard

That is absolutly not true. The board of directors made it sound like this was the case, but in the court case, Musk lost, it was proven the board of directors knew they were on track to hit those benchmarks without any changes in direction. No miracles, no genius, just a boat cruising into the harbor.

 

[Rudyduu]

Wrong on all counts. Musk joined Tesla within months of its original incorporation, when the company was nothing but an idea. He became its largest investor at that time (2004), putting nearly $7M of his money into seed capital. He continued to invest his own money into the firm, culminating in 2008, when the company's impending bankruptcy forced him to pour literally every cent he had into the firm, and then assumed the CEO role. He also spent several years literally sleeping nights on the firm's factory floor, to bring their first cars to market.

I'll also note that all Tesla's major advances -- those which allowed it to become the first, and still the only automaker on the planet to profitably produce EVs -- were huge gambles made by Musk that paid off, gambles that industry observers widely predicted would fail: from his 'gigapress' manufacturing technique to producing his own batteries, rather than relying on third party sources. Had Musk followed the usual CEO path of "listening to the experts" -- Tesla would now be bankrupt, like every other EV maker before and after it.

This is outrageous fanboying. Since Musk was involved with the company well before they almost went bankrupt it can be argued his actions let to their possible bankruptcy. A CEO having to dig into their own pocket to save the company means they put the company in a position to need financial help. While Tesla was the media's darling there was nothing that Tesla could do wrong, but now that there is competition from companies that have been making cars for several decades Tesla is being overtaken.

 

[ZedRM]

Musk is NOT a founder of Tesla.

Yes, he is.

This is a common misconception.

No, it isn't.
https://www.tesla.com/elon-musk
Read, learn.

Also, he's NOT a primary investor. He was awarded hundreds of millions of Tesla stock, which is not the same as being an investor and putting your own money into a company.

As you are incorrect on the first point, this statement has no merit.

 

[Endymio]

This is outrageous fanboying. Since Musk was involved with the company well before they almost went bankrupt it can be argued his actions let to their possible bankruptcy.

Logic really isn't that hard, Bobby. Before the bankruptcy, Musk wasn't CEO -- he wasn't even an executive. His "actions" were limited to donating huge amounts of cash into the firm, which they essentially poured gasoline on and lit afire.

It wasn't until Musk took the reins that Tesla brought a viable product to market, pulled itself out of bankruptcy, and skyrocketed to a trillion-dollar valuation.

 

[Endymio]

Musk has direct influence over the board of directors and the board isn't looking after the shareholders

Oops! Today's headline: "
Tesla shareholders vote to reinstate Musk's $56B pay package

...it was proven the board of directors knew they were on track to hit those benchmarks without any changes in direction.

Who told you this falsehood? No company is ever "on track" to expand 20 times its current size and value in just five short years. And in Tesla's case, Musk made several large changes in direction over that period, to ensure that growth.