According to news on February 6, last week, a judge in Delaware revoked Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation plan for 2018. Subsequently, more than 5,800 Tesla retail investors quickly acted to publicly express their support for Musk and his compensation plan. The ruling, originally prompted by a lawsuit filed by a heavy metal band drummer who owned just nine Tesla shares, generated mixed reactions.
These Tesla investors who firmly support Musk have a clear goal: not only do they want to clearly express their support for Musk's 2018 compensation plan (which has successfully achieved the originally set goals), but they also strongly demand that the Tesla board of directors design a new compensation plan for Musk as soon as possible so that he can control 25% of the company's voting shares. In addition, these investors have actively supported Tesla's idea of moving its company registration from Delaware to Texas.
Called by social media influencers such as Alexandra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama) and Amy Steffens (@_sftahoe), this support action quickly gathered 5,821 Tesla shareholders in just four days. These shareholders collectively hold 23,337,127 Tesla shares (with a total value of more than $4 billion) and jointly signed an open letter to Tesla’s board of directors.
The following is an open letter from these investors to Tesla’s board of directors:
We firmly support moving Tesla’s registration from Delaware to Texas, where Tesla is already headquartered. If shareholders’ voting rights are deprived, Tesla’s registered status in Delaware will be unsustainable.
We expect the Board of Directors to delve deeply into various options to ensure that shareholder votes support and maintain the effectiveness of Tesla's 2018 CEO compensation plan. Tesla shareholders do not want their voting rights to be arbitrarily taken away. Tesla shareholders elect Tesla's board of directors and understand the close ties between board members and Musk. It was the shareholders who chose them. Judge McCormick’s recent decision to revoke the 2018 CEO compensation plan undoubtedly sets a dangerous precedent for all shareholders of American companies.
We expect the board of directors to develop a new CEO compensation package for Musk based on the 2018 compensation plan. The new plan will require Tesla to achieve a series of ambitious performance and market capitalization milestones.
These performance milestones may include: Fully Autonomous Driving (FSD) reaching the L5 level of autonomous driving, Tesla’s energy department completing its annual kilowatt-hour target, the next generation electric vehicle platform being officially put into production, and the mass production of the humanoid robot Optimus Prime. Market capitalization milestones could include Tesla's total market capitalization increasing by $500 billion or $1 trillion, or any intermediate milestone with practical significance, or it could exceed the combined market capitalization of Saudi Arabian Oil and Apple. Part of the new plan will come in the form of stock awards to Musk, ultimately bringing his share of voting rights above 25%. If Tesla merged in a state that allowed super voting shares, we would also fully support it.
Shareholders who complete this form agree that their names and details will be disclosed to the Tesla Board of Directors and may be made public.
It is worth noting that this action by Tesla investors brought together the power of shareholders from different fields. According to the content of the letter disclosed by the organization, among the 5,821 Tesla shareholders, some investors only hold 1 Tesla share, while others hold thousands of shares. They range from long-term investors who have held Tesla stock since 2010 to new shareholders who joined last month. Overall, the move shows that Musk has a large and loyal following among Tesla shareholders.