Elon Musk promised to halt selling shares of Tesla Inc. He also said that any economic downturn could influence a company’s decision to buy back its stock. This was to ease concerns about his purchase of Twitter.
On Thursday’s Twitter Spaces call, Mr. Musk indicated that he would not sell any Tesla stock for at least 18 to 24 months. Since November 2021, when the stock reached its peak, the chief executive of Tesla has sold more than $39 billion worth of shares.
“You certainly have my commitment I won’t sell stock until, I don’t know, probably two years from now. Definitely not next year under any circumstances and probably not the year thereafter,” he said.
Musk pledged not to sell Tesla shares in the past and to continue doing so. To address concerns among Tesla investors that he was distracted since October when he purchased Twitter Inc. for $44 billion, the billionaire made some very expansive comments on the Twitter Spaces forum.
Tesla stock plunged 60% in this year’s market, which is worse than the rest. Concerns have been raised about Tesla’s brand because of some of Mr. Musk’s Twitter handling and his political comments.
According to brand surveys, the company’s image has suffered in recent months due to Mr. Musk’s involvement on Twitter. Mr. Musk said that he wouldn’t muzzle himself on Twitter. “I’m not gonna suppress my views just to boost the stock price,” he said on the Twitter Spaces call.
Musk stated that he could not think of any Tesla issues he hadn’t dealt with in the past weeks due to his busy schedule at Twitter. He stated, “I had to have a sort of short-term, month-or-so if just getting the insane Twitter costs under control or Twitter would have just gone bankrupt.” He added “that is basically almost entirely done” with some more engineering work left to be accomplished.
This week, Mr. Musk suggested that he might resign as CEO of Twitter if he can find a replacement. Tesla’s boss tried to be positive about the company’s long-term prospects despite growing concerns about a slowing in demand. Tesla offers buyers rare discounts to allow them to take delivery of their vehicles before the end of the year.
Musk stated that “There is stormy weather ahead, but then there is going to be sunshine thereafter.” He stated that rising interest rates were driving near-term pressures on department heads. He suggested that some Tesla plans could be affected by economic turmoil. “Are we talking about a mild recession, a moderate recession, a severe recession? We don’t know yet,” Musk stated.
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