Elon Musk’s Twitter poll shaves $80.9b off Tesla’s market value and raises regulatory questions
SINGAPORE/BENGALURU (REUTERS) - Tesla chief Elon Musk's Twitter poll proposing to sell a tenth of his holdings in the electric carmaker shaved around US$60 billion (S$80.9 billion) off the company's market value on Monday (Nov 8) and raised questions about whether he may have violated his settlement with the US securities regulator again. Mr Musk, the world's richest person with a net worth estimated by Forbes at US$304 billion on Monday, tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10 per cent of his stake if users of the social media network approved. The poll garnered more than 3.5 million votes, and 57.9 per cent of the people voted in favour. Mr Musk's poll follows a proposal by US Senate Democrats to tax stocks of billionaires to help finance President Joe Biden's social spending plan and fill a loophole that allowed the rich to indefinitely defer capital gains taxes. Tesla's shares were last down 4.8 per cent at US$1,162.94 after falling as low as US$1,133 earlier in the session. Tesla accounted for over 10 per cent of all trading in US companies' stocks, according to Refinitiv data. "Elon Mr Musk doesn't like to do things in a conventional way," said Russ Mould, director at AJ...
Twitter shares tumble on first trading day after Trump ban
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Shares of Twitter tumbled over 6 per cent on Monday (Jan 11) after its move to permanently suspend US President Donald Trump's widely-followed account spurred concern among investors over the future regulation of social networks. The stock ended down 6.4 per cent at US$48.18 after sinking as much as 12.3 per cent in the morning. Syill Twitter shares were still about 160 per cent higher that where they traded before Mr Trump won the Presidential election in 2016. Twitter said on Friday its suspension of Trump's account, which had 88 million followers, was due to the risk of further violence following the storming of the US Capitol last week. The move drew criticism from some Republicans for quelling the president's right to free speech, while European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton said the past week's events likely heralded a new era of heavier official control. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose relations with Mr Trump have been frosty, criticized Twitter's ban and warned through a spokesman that legislators, not private companies, should decide on potential curbs to free expression. The attention drawn to Twitter increased investors' worries that it co...