Judge blocks 'unfathomable' $56B Tesla pay deal | Hacker News Reader

Judge blocks 'unfathomable' $56B Tesla pay deal

bbc.co.uk

34 pointsode23 comments

Its the same package that had targets said to be 'laughably impossible'(1) when it was first announced.

Now that all the targets are achieved in a fraction of the time, its redefined as 'unfathomable'.

[1]. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/business/dealbook/tesla-e...

(If Mr. Musk were somehow to increase the value of Tesla to $650 billion — a figure many experts would contend is laughably impossible ...)

At the same time Tesla / Musk is at trial over manipulation of the stock price: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/28/tesla-tri...

(as a side note I think exactly this is the reason Musk bought twitter; to have more control and protection from stock price manipulation through the platform)

It's funny that we accept the immense market cap of certain corporations, and the rapid changes of it, but not high CEO salaries. But this is what the CEO is paid for. A corporation is something abstract, it's worth whatever people are willing to pay for the stock, but a salary is something human and outrageous.

Sure. He shouldn’t have sold 87% of his ownership then. He’s only a 13% owner.

Could have kept Tesla private like SpaceX.

[dupe]

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39196390

He says he wants more control in the company ...

Elon could have kept Tesla private.

I doubt SpaceX is ever going public after this shenanigans.

he should be allowed to keep the package. investors are the pos bunch esp the activist do-more-layoffs ones. The targets were met. A deal is a deal.

The ruling said there was a conflict of interest. Effectively his friends on the compensation committee conspired with him against the best interests of the shareholders.

Except the shareholders disagreed

If the shareholders get advice they believe is from independent agents representing their interests but instead is from plants representing Musk's interests then any opinions formed are not valid.

There haven't been many (or any) shareholders other than this plaintiff who obviously had ulterior motives, that said they were deceived.

Not hot take: Musk is a pos.

Hot take: he deserves to keep the package. Tesla increased $550B in value, of which 90% went to investors and 10% to him should he kept his package. It was extremely unlikely that he would hit the targets. The value of the “options” back when he was conditionally granted them was like $50M. They only grew in value astronomically because he increased the market cap an insane amount. This feels like a casino nullifying a roulette spin because the croupier didn’t spin it fast enough after it landed on 14 and you bet on 14.

$50M over 6 years, which at the time most likely wouldn’t have been needing to paid out at all unless he met the unfathomably unlikely targets.

>The value of the “options” back when he was conditionally granted them was like $50M.

Getting the options was contingent on market cap, so not sure this makes sense.

Besides, this is about Elon running over a captured board. When you read the series of events that lead to the pay package, that part makes more sense.

Remember, the board also had to return money...

Did you read the article? The ruling wasn't because it was too big it was because he got a bunch of friends to juice up his comp.

It's against the rules to call out people for not reading the article, no matter how obvious.

The board really said that the point was to make sure Musk focused his attention on the company.

Anyway, it was an interesting take that I read on X via Starlink. Tomorrow I plan to take the Vegas Loop for a ride before getting my Neurolink chip.

Clearly whatever attention he paid the company was enough to achieve the target. Maybe the other projects are just relaxation for him, like playing a video game.

Sure. Maybe it was enough to achieve the underlying goal. It just failed at the stated objective spectacularly.

But he recently threatened to not pay attention to AI at Tesla, presumably moving any innovations/energy there out to another company.

Is that before heading on to a rocket bound for Mars?

Fair enough. SpaceX and Starlink, while one company, are two different focuses that each deserved a mention.

Are you actually talking about the Vegas Loop unironically?

No. My entire post was ironic.

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