Elon Musk will appear in court this week to defend a US$56bn pay packet from Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a court case brought by the electric vehicle company’s shareholders.
Musk does not receive a salary or bonuses for his role as Tesla CEO, but was given the award in 2018 amid efforts to ensure he remained in charge at the company, according to his ally Ira Ehrenpreis.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing Tesla investors argued that it “dwarfs the pay package of every other public company CEO,” as they attempt to prove that the cost ultimately fell on them.
Tesla argued that the payments, based on a dozen tranches of stock options, will have driven huge returns for shareholders since its terms required a lot of work by Musk.
Investors counter that Musk’s involvement in so many other companies, including SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company and now Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), stretches him too thin to be considered a full-time CEO of Tesla.
Musk’s appearance in court sees him placed at the centre of more controversy, something seemingly he has courted in recent weeks after his US$44bn takeover of Twitter.
Musk firing workers who argue with him
Following a series of mass job cuts, reports have emerged that Musk has fired workers who publicly argued with him, including an engineer on Monday who disagreed with the new CEO over why the platform was operating slowly.
After the very public argument, Eric Frohnfoefer, the engineer who was fired, tweeted a photo of his laptop display showing he had been locked out, confirming he had lost his job.
He had replied to an Elon Musk tweet beforehand, saying: “I have spent ~6 years working at Twitter for Android and can say this is wrong.”
Roughly half of the social media’s workforce was laid off after Musk highlighted Twitter was facing daily losses of US$4mln, with thousands more losing their jobs in recent days.
These jobs cuts, which include vast numbers of those who worked on content moderation, misinformation and hate speech, have led to fears that harmful content will become commonplace on the platform.
Pressure building on all angles
Musk has said himself that he currently has too much on his plate during a videoconference connected to the G20 summit.
His Twitter takeover produces new headlines every day with verification charges and subscriptions also recently introduced.
Advertising is currently the main source of Twitter’s income, but the controversy has seen many companies halt payments, risking its key revenue stream.
In response, investors have scrutinised Musk over his lack of focus on Tesla, arguing that at a time when the EV company is facing increased competition and uncertainty from global economic turmoil, it needs his attention more than ever.
Brokers from Wedbush went as far as calling for Musk to “end his Twitter madness now,” citing the takeover and subsequent backlash as a “debacle”.