On average, a group of Tesla investors recovered about $12,000 in losses each, since Elon Musk famously tweeted in 2018 that he had “funded” at $420 per share. privatized the automaker, but did not do so later.
The SEC plans to pay investors $40 million, plus interest agreed to by Tesla’s chief executive and the company, as a civil penalty to settle the regulator’s lawsuit. That’s just over half of the $80 million the SEC estimated they lost due to stock price swings after the tweet, and only for expert witnesses from Tesla’s investor class in another class action trial earlier this year. A fraction of the $12 billion loss calculated in
SEC asks judge for final approval of plan court filing Wednesday night.
If the plan is approved, a total of 3,350 claims will be paid out of the fund established by the settlement, the document said. That works out to an average investment of just under $12,400 per investor. If Tesla or the world’s richest man, Musk, has no objections, he will sign off on the plan on Sept. 1, a judge said on Thursday.
I’m considering taking Tesla private for $420. Funding is guaranteed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
What accounts for the large gap between the estimated loss of $80 million and $12 billion? It’s not entirely clear, but the experts’ numbers apply to all Tesla investors’ losses in the 10 days following the Aug. 7, 2018, tweet. The SEC data covers a little more than 27 hours after the tweet, excludes options and derivatives trades, and applies only to Tesla common stock. Not all accredited investors make claims.
Investors in the class-action suit lost a trial in February, when a jury took just two hours to clear Musk’s allegations that he deceived them with tweets. The case is one of a handful of corporate securities fraud charges to go to trial. The vast majority were abandoned or settled.
Investors are attractive.
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