After having been pared back from an original $55 billion value, Tesla shareholders voted recently to reinstate CEO Elon Musk’s compensation package. This came after the January declaration by a Delaware judge that the deal was “deeply flawed” because of issues about the negotiation process and because Musk was personally related to the negotiators.
The original lawsuit challenged Musk’s compensation level and package, brought in April 2023 on behalf of all Tesla shareholders. This package was such that Honorary Chancellor Kathleen St. Jude McCormick rebuked this statement as being “the largest potential compensation opportunity ever observed in the public markets by several orders of magnitude.”
Despite the most recent vote by shareholders endorsing the all-stock compensation plan, the lawsuit, at best is far from finished. Following a prolonged appeal process that is expected to take months to conclude, this case will land in Delaware courts, and more likely, the Supreme Court.
Regarding his pay from Tesla, Musk is still under investigation. In January 2024, Investopedia listed Musk as the richest person in the world with a net worth of $229 billion.
