Elon Musk says he’s overworked. The head of Tesla and Twitter, among others, said during an interview during a company meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali that he had “too much work” on his plate. “I work as hard as I can work. From morning to night, seven days a week,” Musk said.
Musk recently became the “Chief Twit” of Twitter. His unique leadership style has already cost about half of the tech company’s staff their jobs, though he has reversed some of those layoffs. Twitter’s work-from-home policy has also been scrapped.
It’s not the first time Musk has opposed remote working. Tesla employees were told they were more likely to “pretend to work elsewhere” if they wanted to work from home. Musk himself has also been known to sleep at work, or even on the factory floor.
Surreal
Musk’s frantic work rate was the theme that came back the most, even if the conversation fell silent at times. It was made even more surreal by its darkened background and dim lighting. The billionaire, dressed in an Indonesian batik shirt sent to him by the organisers, said the power had gone out at his headquarters.
Musk currently heads Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX. He also founded the tunneling company The Boring Company and the technology company Neuralink. “The way I torture myself is next level, honestly,” said the richest person in the world.
Billion dollar bonus
Today Musk also has to defend in court a billion dollar bonus that he was promised a few years ago at Tesla. That bonus could turn out to be so large that the CEO could wipe out the entire $44 billion (currently about €42.7 billion) he recently invested in the Twitter acquisition. The case dates back years, but experts say it could become controversial.
Controversial package of stock options
In 2018, the Tesla CEO was promised a stock option package if he could meet certain goals with Tesla. Since then, Tesla’s stock price has increased more than tenfold and the company was briefly worth more than $1 trillion (€970 billion).
According to calculations, Musk could earn up to 56 billion dollars (54 billion euros). The controversial package allows him to buy 1% of Tesla’s shares at a steep discount whenever certain goals are met.
David versus Goliath
Richard Tornetta, a small investor in Tesla, felt the bonus was excessive and filed a lawsuit in 2018. At the time there was immediately much speculation that Tesla’s stock price could soar to great heights. Even Tornetta, who is also a thrash metal drummer and runs an audio equipment company, feels it is unfair that Musk has been awarded the remuneration of a board that in reality would be completely under his control. For example, one of the directors involved was Kimbal Musk, the brother of the richest man in the world.
Not easy
Yet the matter is not that simple. Musk’s lawyers stressed that the proposal was approved by a large majority of Tesla shareholders. Because of the bonus, Musk would focus on making Tesla better. And that would be because the share price has risen so fast, which is in the interest of all shareholders.
Same judge in the Twitter case
The case will be heard in the state of Delaware starting today, by the same judge who recently dealt with the case between Twitter and Musk to force the latter to carry out his takeover plan. Musk had made an offer on Twitter in April but regretted it and decided in July that he wanted to get rid of that deal. After that he was still willing to buy Twitter.
The billion dollar bonus case will now take a week. If the small investor wins, Musk’s 2018 stock options package will be revoked, benefiting Tesla. Tornetta does not claim any compensation for itself.
SEE ALSO. Elon Musk fires 3,700 Twitter employees
SEE ALSO. Elon Musk defends mass layoffs on Twitter: “Unfortunately, when the company is losing more than $4 million a day, there’s no choice”
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