Tesla board takes heat over succession plan
Tesla Inc.’s board of directors is facing mounting pressure to prove just how prepared they are for the potential loss of Elon Musk, the erratic chief executive officer largely behind the breakneck rise and dramatic fall in the company’s valuation.
Karen Róbertsdóttir, a shareholder in Reykjavik, Iceland, has submitted a resolution for Tesla investors to vote in May on whether the board should prepare and maintain a key-person risk report.
Several other shareholders who wanted to put forward proposals — at least one of which also pertained to Musk — are frustrated with how the company disclosed plans to hold its annual meeting months earlier than in recent years, sparing the directors from even more heat.
If Róbertsdóttir’s motion makes it onto Tesla’s proxy, it will give investors a tangible way to force Tesla to be more forthcoming about an area of concern that’s been growing since Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
The carmaker’s directors designed an unprecedented pay package years ago that seeded the CEO with the means to agree to the $44billion (all figures U.S.) deal just as social media and technology company shares were beginning to plunge.
Twitter’s strain on Musk’s personal finances — he recently became the first person ever to lose $200 billion of net worth — and his sale of almost $40 billion of Tesla shares amid months of impulsive tweeting has aggrieved several prominent Tesla investors. One accused the board of having been missing in action, while another mixed it up with Musk on the social media service he overpaid for.