Elon Musk offloads $8.5 billion of Tesla shares to buy Twitter

Last week, Twitter announced that it has finalised a deal giving Elon Musk full control over the company. The $44 billion deal will see Elon Musk take over the company and is set to complete in later part of the year.

On Friday, Musk disclosed that he has offloaded more than 9.6 million shares of Tesla worth $8.5 billion. According to the SEC filing, Musk sold shares in tranches throughout the week and the sale represented roughly 17% of Tesla's total trading. While, the sale happened in pieces, it did make a dent on the company's stock price as it lost over 11% in a week and closed at $870.7 on Friday, down from $979.2 on Monday. On Tuesday, Tesla saw a 12% drop, its biggest since September 2020. This also prompted a selling spree as 45 million Tesla shares traded hands in a day.

On Friday Elon Musk tweeted that he does not plan to sell any more Tesla shares.

The sale is in line with Musk's current plans of completing the Twitter's acquisition. According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk plans to put up $21 billion in cash and will be taking a $13 billion buyout loan from companies like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, while the remaining $12.5 billion will come from a margin loan against Tesla.

As of June 30, 2021, Musk had pledged over 88.3 million of his Tesla shares as collateral to secure loans but there are limits to how much can he raise just by pledging Tesla shares and we may see him sell more Tesla shares in the future.

Elon Musk offloads $8.5 billion of Tesla shares to buy Twitter