Shares of Tesla ($TSLA@US) were rising in early trading after a massive selloff in the previous session. The stock dropped 5% late Monday as Elon Musk, once again, took to social media to spurn some intrigue. Musk went on Twitter ($TWTR@US)—his favored social media platform—to ask his followers if he should sell a stake in Tesla that is worth around $21 billion. When his poll was closed, 58% of those who voted said that he should make the sale. As a result, there was a massive selloff that wiped out around $60 billion of the company’s value in a very short time. While analysts believe that it can recover value in the coming days, this is a staggering move for a CEO who has been cited and fined by the SEC in the past for his social media posts. In fact, the SEC censured Musk so aggressively in 2018 that he was forced to step down as chairman of Tesla. Reports out of the New York Times indicate that Musk needs to sell about 10% of his stake in Tesla to pay what will amount to a $10 billion tax bill on the stock options he was granted in 2012. Brian Foley, an executive compensation consultant, called Musk’s stock options a “ticking tax time bomb.”
