Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, sold $8.5 billion in shares in the electric vehicle company, according to U.S. securities filings, presumably to help finance his planned acquisition of Twitter Inc.
Musk stated in a tweet on Thursday that "no additional TSLA sales are planned after today." According to the papers on Thursday and Friday, he sold around 9.6 million shares this week, representing 5.6 percent of his holding in the firm.
The sale comes after Musk agreed to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in cash on Monday, transferring ownership of the social media site populated by millions of users and global leaders to the world's richest person. According to Forbes, Musk's net worth is $268 billion.
Musk stated that he will contribute a $21 billion equity investment as part of the agreement. It is unclear how he intends to fund the remaining $17 billion in stock financing. Musk owns 43.61 percent of the unlisted rocket business SpaceX, which is reputedly worth $100 billion.
According to Reuters, Musk has been seeking for partners to lower his equity stake in the purchase, but it is far from likely that such a partner would materialize.
This is his first Tesla stock transaction since selling $16.4 billion in shares in November and December after polling Twitter followers about selling 10% of his ownership in the electric carmaker.
Musk stated on Twitter that he will pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 as a result of exercising stock options that are supposed to expire this year.
Some traders have expressed concern this week that Musk may not have enough cash on hand to cover his $21 billion cash commitment and may withdraw from the transaction, dragging on Twitter shares.
Tesla shares have dropped nearly 20% after Musk announced his more than 9% investment in Twitter on April 4. Investors are concerned that Musk will have to sell Tesla stock to pay his equity contribution to the takeover bid.
Musk reportedly took out a $12.5 billion margin debt connected to his Tesla equity as part of the Twitter transaction. He'd previously borrowed against almost half of his Tesla stock.
