Judge Upholds Termination of Musk Compensation Package

Elon Musk’s bank account will not get a massive increase thanks to a judge blocking a board-approved compensation package.

Musk stood to gain roughly $50 billion had the package stood up against legal scrutiny.

Instead, the judge ruled the package was excessive, and downgraded the overall award to less than $400 million.

Don’t Feel Sorry for Him

In 2018, Musk was due a compensation package from Tesla that would have reached as much as $56 billion.

When the package went before the shareholders and the board, a $48 billion package was approved as well as allowing Musk to relocate the company to Texas.

The relocation happened, but the compensation package was stalled because it was challenged in court.

The compensation package was ordered to be terminated, and that decision was just upheld by Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick.

In addition to that ruling, the plaintiff attorneys' request for more than $5 billion in Tesla stock was also denied, with the judge ruling that legal fees of $345 million were far reasonable.

Initially, attorneys had been seeking legal fees in the $7 billion range.

Tesla was livid with the ruling, posting, “The court’s decision is wrong, and we’re going to appeal.

“This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders.”

This judge, by the way, was the same judge that Musk faced when he tried to terminate his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion.

As we all know, Musk eventually acquired Twitter, changing the name of the platform to X, but the value of the company has significantly decreased since the Musk takeover.

X is now reportedly valued at about $9 billion, a mere 20% of the original stake paid by Musk.

But don’t feel sorry for him, as Musk has a current net worth of more than $336 billion, making him the richest man on the planet.