Tesla shareholders voted last week to give CEO Elon Musk a record pay package, one that could net him about $1 trillion in company stock over the next decade. But Musk received less support than he did for an earlier pay plan in 2018.
Setting aside holdings owned by board members and executives, about 66% of shares tabulated in the vote were in favor of the package, according to a filing on Friday. When shareholders voted on the 2018 plan, that number was 73%, according to an analysis by Andrew Droste, head of corporate governance at investment firm Columbia Threadneedle.
In announcing the preliminary results on Thursday at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, Tesla said the plan received 75% support among voting shares. The company count included insiders like Musk, who held around a 15% stake in Tesla going into the proxy and was allowed to vote his shares.
The decline from the prior vote follows a tumultuous stretch for Musk and Tesla. Sales slumped in the first half of the year, in part because of Musk’s inflammatory political rhetoric and his work for the Trump administration, slashing the size of the federal government. Tesla’s brand value has also deteriorated.
Still, Droste said in an email that even at a 66% level, the vote represents “broad support for Elon among Tesla’s shareholder base.” Most investors recognize that Tesla and Elon Musk are “inextricably linked,” he wrote, and were “unwilling to risk his potential departure by allowing this vote to fail.”
