On Thursday, Tesla shareholders will face a stark choice: approve Elon Musk’s enormous pay package, the largest ever awarded to a chief executive, or risk him picking up his ball and going home. The shareholder meeting on Thursday is a referendum on Musk’s tumultuous leadership, in which he took a relatively niche startup, , and turned it into what is arguably one of the most in modern history. To reward him for this feat, shareholders are being asked to cast an unprecedented vote on Musk’s compensation — to the tune of $50 billion — for the second time.
Last January, a Delaware court judge , first approved in 2018, arguing that the process was flawed because shareholders lacked insight into its development and that Tesla’s board was too chummy with its already very rich CEO. Incensed, Musk pulled some strings to set up another vote, while also pushing for a proposal to reincorporate Tesla in Texas as a way to avoid the scrutiny of Delaware’s shareholder-favoring court system. Tesla’s board says the pay package is needed to secure Musk’s attention — even as it becomes less clear that money is what really motivates him.
“If I were a shareholder, I would be asking myself for starters whether the $50 billion Elon Musk is requesting in exchange for his full attention would in fact secure it,” said Gregory Shill, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, “or if, as some colleagues have argued, it would be unlikely to.” , Tesla board chair Ro.
