Elon Musk sold over $8.4 billion worth of Tesla shares as he closes Twitter buyout deal; stock pops after he says he’s done selling

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold roughly $8.4 billion worth of Tesla shares this week as he raises funds to complete the $44 billion Twitter buyout deal. The announcement of the sale comes as Musk raises funds to complete his Twitter acquisition.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Musk sold 4.4 million shares of Twitter on April 26 and 27, just days after Twitter agreed to his $44 billion offer to take the company private.

Then on Thursday, Musk sold another $4.4 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to SEC filings published Friday. However, the bulk of the sales was made on Tuesday, according to the filings. As we reported, Tesla shares fell 12% that day but climbed higher on Wednesday by less than one percentage point.

Meanwhile, Musk took to Twitter to say that he was done selling Tesla shares after the filings were made public on Thursday night. In a tweet, Musk said, “No further TSLA sales planned after today.” He made the remark in response to an account that heavily promotes Tesla stock, products, and Musk on the social network.

No further TSLA sales planned after today

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2022

Shares of Tesla popped by 4% after the tweet.

On April 25, Twitter agreed to sell the company to Elon Musk for $44 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing the proposed transaction.

The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter. Musk needed to use his Tesla stock to raise $21 billion in equity to fund his takeover of the social media giant.