Featured in this episode of Tech News of the Week
Elon Musk was sued by Tesla shareholders in Delaware Chancery court. Why? Because back in 2018, he was paid an unbelievable $56 billion dollars in Tesla stock options as a reward for the company hitting some allegedly unattainable performance goals. I say “allegedly,” because the shareholder suit shows that the goals were actually expected, and Musk hid the data regarding them from the Board prior to all parties signing the contract.
So, in effect, Musk lied to Tesla about Tesla’s expected growth so that he could sign a “risky contract” that would pay him massively if the company performed massively. And he was super buddy-buddy with the approving parties on the Board- so much so, that they did next to nothing to vet the projections in question.
This was 2018, remember… people still had positive feelings for Tesla’s future. What appeared a longshot bet based on bravado was actually much closer to a sure thing. While this is not be purely a tech news item, I think it’s worth noting that this story is yet another piece of evidence that Musk will lie, cheat, and in this case, steal, just to get his name in the papers and continue the myth of his own tech genius.
His response to the court judgement was terse, saying: “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.” To which I say, “alternatively, maybe stop lying about everything, all the time.”