Elon Musk has to pay three fired Twitter executives nearly $200 million
Posted on August 28, 2012
A new report says that Elon Musk’s pay for Twitter employees who were terminated is now $200 million (and growing), with some of it coming from the Twitter stock that he had allegedly been paid $1 a share for.
The report, by Fortune magazine, says that Musk’s personal financial records “give a strong indication that the payouts at Twitter could be as high as $200 million.”
Musk had allegedly been paid out almost 1 million shares of Twitter stock, which were worth $1 per share.
When Musk was arrested by authorities and charged with fraud and securities violations, he tried to spin the story on Twitter.
Musk has repeatedly argued that the charges related to his stock dealings were “political smear” and that he has a good understanding of the technology he created, and shouldn’t be held accountable for wrongdoing.
There really is a big problem with this piece. The employees were fired when the company was struggling in the face of declining revenues. And, if you look at the amount of stock the company owned at the time of the termination, it was virtually worthless.
So the employees weren’t even trying to find work elsewhere. That’s not unusual for someone with no experience and no qualifications. As long as the company was struggling, he wanted to get rid of them, and he did.
These guys are not idiots. They did everything in their power to find work elsewhere. They also did everything they could to stay out of jail, including the use of their company’s resources.
If anyone who gets out of jail deserves to be given more money, it should be Elon Musk.
In any case, I have no idea what’s going on in the world of investing, but this story makes me nervous.
Posted on August 28, 2012
I was just on the phone last night with a friend of mine named Andy M. He’s a wealth advisor, and, on the advice of his wife, he’s getting out of the retirement investing game altogether.
The two of us went down to Bally’s Buffet’s in New York City for a meal, and, as I was waiting for him to come back with our dinner, I mentioned that I’m glad he’s getting out.
“That’s a big deal,” said
