tetranoir

There are many services that offer loans for leveraging options, for decent rates too. A lot of people I know do this to pay the exercise tax

It's supposed to prevent hostile takeovers.

Not entirely true. There's a grey area where you can sell futures of your own stock on the secondary market that can avoid requiring board approval.

A large % of the $44B that Elon paid is likely in unvested RSUs. Firing people is a way for him to save money for sure.

You can probably find this number in the 10K or 8K

Likely turns into cash over the same period at the buyout price. It technically depends on the change of management clause in your contract.

The firings will reduce the owed cash that Elon has to payout as a result of the stock swap. Smart move