Tesla shareholder vote on Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package heats up

Elon Musk's massive pay package is being voted on by Tesla shareholders after a judge struck it down, ruling that it was improperly awarded.

It may be the highest-stakes popularity contest in history. 

Friends and foes of tech billionaire Elon Musk are nearing the end of a two-month battle over whether to reinstate a record $56 billion pay package for the Tesla CEO, months after a Delaware state judge struck down his compensation as improperly awarded.

The fight is in the form of a shareholder vote: Nearly all owners of Tesla stock, including Wall Street firms and thousands of individual investors, are casting ballots for or against the pay package, voting mostly online ahead of the automaker’s annual meeting Thursday in Austin, Texas. Voting began in April, and the final votes are expected in person at Thursday’s meeting.

The question before shareholders: whether to bless a pay package that they originally approved in 2018 but that the Delaware judge deemed illegal under that state’s corporate laws.

The vote is unusual not only because of the fortune that Musk stands to gain — it’s 250 times larger than the median among Musk’s peers, according to the judge who voided it in January — but also because of the public and private jockeying on both sides of the pay vote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/elon-musk-paid-56-billion-tesla-shareholders-vote-rcna153981

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