Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Tesla's board is giving its CEO Elon Musk a $29 billion pay package, months after a Delaware court rejected for a second time his 2018 performance award.
The new package is a "good faith" award designed to keep Musk at the helm of the company. It would give Musk 96 million shares of the company that he could take after two years of service in a "senior leadership role" at Tesla. Musk hinted last month that he wanted more ownership at Tesla beyond his 13% stake to prevent his ouster by "activist" shareholders.
In January, Chancery Court Chancellor Kathleen McCormick ruled in favor of shareholder-plaintiff Richard Tornetta, finding the board, under Musk's influence, had arrived at an "unfair price" for the package and ordered the world's richest man to return what he had already received from it.
Each of the 96 million shares received in the deal trades at just over $300. Musk would have to pay $23.34 for each of those shares, equal to the amount he was expected to pay when he was first awarded his 2018 compensation package.
"Despite these legal challenges, we can all agree that Elon has delivered the transformative and unprecedented growth that was required to earn all milestones of the 2018 CEO Performance Award," said Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, members of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors on X. This growth has translated into immense value generated for Tesla and all our shareholders."
