On Thursday, Axios reported that investors at electric vehicle company Tesla are increasingly enraged as tech billionaire Elon Musk sells off more and more of his stake in the company he owns to prop up Twitter — and devalues Tesla in the process.
"The precipitous drop in Tesla's stock price illustrates the real-world consequences of Musk's decision to acquire Twitter, and then disrupt the company's operations, scaring off advertisers," reported Nathan Bomey. "Tesla's stock has lost nearly half of its value in the last three months, touching a new 52-week low of $153.28 yesterday."
"Musk disclosed late Wednesday in a public filing that he sold another $3.58 billion in Tesla shares, bringing his total selloff this year to some $40 billion, per Reuters," said the report. "It was a fears-come-true development for Tesla investors, who were anticipating Musk selling off more stock to prop up Twitter's sagging financial prospects, CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson told Axios on Nov. 30. Musk had publicly stated twice this year that he didn't plan to sell any more shares in Tesla, Axios' Rebecca Falconer reported."
"When does it end?" said Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, adding that Musk's dumps of Tesla stock are turning into "a train wreck situation" for Musk's business network.
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump's new money-making scheme is 'appalling even by Trump standards': former Rubio staffer
Experts have been arguing that shares in Tesla, a huge source of Musk's billions in wealth, were overvalued to begin with.
Since taking over Twitter, firing massive portions of the workforce, instituting a number of policy changes, allowing a number of far-right figures banned for harassment back onto the platform, and reportedly refusing to pay rent on the company's headquarters, the social networking company has seen a massive dropoff in revenue as advertisers pull funding.
As of November, one third of Twitter's 100 largest advertisers have stopped doing business with the site.
Musk's decision to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, then sell off large amounts of Tesla stock, hurting the value of the remaining stock he holds, has resulted in Musk losing his title of the richest man in the world.
