Tesla shares fall after Elon Musk’s Twitter followers vote for 10% stock sale
Musk said he would abide by the results of the poll
Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins explains why Tesla is missing in action at the president's address.
Elon Musk’s Twitter followers weighed in this weekend on whether the Tesla CEO should sell 10% of his stock in the company.
Shares fell 5% in early Monday trading.
The Twitter poll, which garnered more than 3.5 million votes closed Sunday, with nearly 58% in favor of Musk’s proposition and more than 42% against the idea.
FILE: Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks before unveiling the Model Y at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif. (AP)
Musk said he would abide by the results of the poll, whatever the outcome may have been.
The tweet came amid some Democrats pushing for billionaires to pay taxes when the price of the stocks they hold goes up, even if they don't sell any shares. It's a concept called "unrealized gains," and Musk is sitting on a lot of them with a net worth of roughly $300 billion.
BEZOS' BLUE ORIGIN LOSES NASA LAWSUIT; WIN FOR MUSK'S SPACEX
FILE: SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer media award, in Berlin. T (AP)
Much of Musk's wealth is held in shares of Tesla, which does not pay him a cash salary. "I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," he tweeted.
CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO
The Associated Press contributed to this report.