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What's Next for Elon Musk After Judge Voids Tesla Pay Package

February 05, 2024 / 12:10

This episode discusses Elon Musk's recent court loss regarding his $55 billion compensation package from Tesla, the judge's ruling, and the implications for Tesla's board.

Judge Kathleen McCormack ruled that Musk's compensation was unfair to shareholders, citing conflicts of interest among board members. The ruling mandates Tesla to cancel stock options valued at about $51 billion.

The hosts analyze the board's lack of independence and the potential for a new compensation plan that satisfies both Musk and legal requirements. They express skepticism about the board's ability to make unbiased decisions.

The conversation touches on Musk's threats to move Tesla's incorporation to Texas and the challenges he faces in appointing credible board members. The hosts emphasize the importance of fiduciary duty in corporate governance.

Overall, the episode critiques Musk's behavior and the board's incompetence, highlighting the broader implications for corporate governance.

TLDR

Elon Musk loses $55 billion compensation package in court due to board conflicts and must now navigate new compensation plans.

Episode

12:10
00:00:00
Elon Musk suffered a major loss in a Delaware Court this week when a judge voided his $55 billion compensation
00:00:06
package from Tesla uh judge Kathleen McCormack uh called the compensation quote an unfathomable sum and it was
00:00:14
unfair to shareholders and the process leading to its 2018 approval was deeply flawed when you read through the
00:00:20
documents it really it was such a backs scratchy situation among the board members who are all friends of his um
00:00:27
apparently one of them cried how how much he loved on it which was kind of disturbing uh
00:00:32
Elon responded to the ruling on X posting never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware too late Elon
00:00:38
and also you should have had a stock that put you in control control of the Dual class shareholders which you didn't
00:00:44
do either um so too bad that if you had a time machine um were you surprised by the ruling first of all the judge let me
00:00:52
gives you more facts the judge ordered Tesla to cancel the stock options order to Elon valued at about 51 billion which
00:00:58
is where most of his compensation is Tesla's directors now have to figure out a new Compensation Plan that passes
00:01:03
legal muster and keeps Elon happy and does it at an arms length which is good luck with that because this board has
00:01:08
shown itself to be a giant rubber stamp for Elon Musk um we haven't heard if he's going to appeal but after a poll on
00:01:14
X he's now saying Tesla will hold a shareholder vote to incorporate in Texas um anyway what does the ruling mean for
00:01:22
elon's Quest to get that 25% I've never I've never heard of this happening or seen it happen the fact that I've been
00:01:29
on compensation committies are boards I've never had a shareholder lawsuit against
00:01:34
compensation the schematic you put in place but to have a shareholder lawsuit I've heard of them like Martin cell had
00:01:40
shareholder lawsuits constantly around his compensation but to have it rejected I mean effectively the shareholders
00:01:48
decide who the board is and so if the shareholders decide who the board is who decides the compensation then
00:01:52
technically the owners of the company have decided you know what what he or she gets I'm not a i don't believe you
00:02:00
should limmit compensation I think we live in a capitalist society and I don't like the idea I I do believe that we
00:02:05
should have a more progressive tax structure but anyways that's another talk show but this effectively says that
00:02:10
this board is so incompetent and so conflicted that any decisions they make might not hold up in court because of
00:02:17
the conflicts there even if you read the ruling they talk about the size of it but what they talk about is the
00:02:24
conflicts and just how uh poor the rationalization was for giving him this cuz is much as the compensation was I
00:02:32
mean just to just to be fair and try and call balls and Strikes him getting in an
00:02:36
incremental 50 billion if you increases the value of the company 500 billion that's that's not I've seen
00:02:43
compensation plans that on you know I mean it's exceptional but on a proportionate size or percentage of
00:02:50
value increase it wasn't outrageous what this says is you know what's going to end up happening here he's not going to
00:02:57
be able to reincorporate all this all these threats all these jazz hands all this fake can you do that when I was
00:03:03
reading that I was like I'm not sure you can I don't um the I should have just said right off the bat um I don't I
00:03:11
don't I don't know but the the notion that and then he's just he's just so ridiculous he says he he said I want to
00:03:20
meet with shareholders and convince them to divest from Tesla or any companies ever they are not welcome well Elon I
00:03:25
don't know if you've heard or you understand corporate structure MH but Co the luxury of shareholders not vice
00:03:31
versa you don't get to decide who your shareholders are the shareholders get to decide what CEO they want mhm and if did
00:03:38
you see the movie did you see Pulp Fiction long time ago yeah well there's a scene in it where I think his name is
00:03:44
great actor Vin rang yeah yeah he was in Miss imposses yeah I think he is knocked
00:03:50
onc conscious um they put a gag ball on him and they rape him he had much more domain and dignity than this board has
00:03:57
right now this is this board has been just molested they should show up to the next annual meeting with a gag ball
00:04:06
because that's they are I the fact that a court has said you are so incompetent and so conflicted and
00:04:16
you are such terrible fiduciaries for shareholders that we're going to just reject his compensation somewhat because
00:04:22
of the size of it but just because this Bo wasn't the size I I have to tell you you know cuz you could make an argument
00:04:28
that he deserves it see it wasn't how the number they got to um you certainly can make a cojen argument he deserves
00:04:35
it's a lot of money but still um uh but the the details like the going on vacation one of them I think Antonio
00:04:43
Garcia's their best friends the brothers on there uh what one of them was a CFO and he cried because he loved Elon so
00:04:51
much I mean you cannot do there's no Independence among any of these people you know on this board and so just was a
00:05:00
hands you know you're supposed to have I mean boards are cozy let's be honest come on like you know that like they're
00:05:06
very cozy with the CEOs intend to give the CEOs what they want but at least they have they pretend that they're not
00:05:12
doing quite this and so it's so bad that's and which is this is something we've just talked about without any
00:05:20
particular knowledge it's so obvious it's a rubber stamp of a board they don't stop him from doing damage via his
00:05:25
tweets they didn't control his um Behavior they made worry about his drug use but they don't do anything about it
00:05:33
or don't think they can do anything about it so this is just another this is the least the least surprising thing
00:05:39
that their pay package was done you know by Elon essentially Elon wrote it and then they rubber stamped it right well
00:05:46
the Delaware chanelly Court he gets to appeal to the Supreme Court of Delaware it'll get they will they will uphold uh
00:05:53
I think Chancellor McCormack's recommendation but I mean this comes on the heels of him deciding that at
00:06:00
threatening the board that if they didn't give him $75 billion didn't give him $75 billion in additional
00:06:04
compensation he's still doing that yeah he was going to steal the IP from the company and start his only I I mean the
00:06:10
the the board the Delaware Court has said your board your board isn't competent what what ultimately ends up
00:06:17
happening here though I mean all the threats and the jazz hands around moving to moving to Texas he's going to have to
00:06:24
replace the compensation committee and get someone to lead the compensation committee who has some credibility and
00:06:30
also doesn't want to be lost there's a there's a story from writers about this that said legal experts said musk would
00:06:36
almost certainly be sued by investors if he tried to move the state of incorporation to Texas particularly if
00:06:41
he was seen as a move to secure his pay package rather than obtain some benefits
00:06:44
for Tesla shh holders it's so it's so in plain sight uh Elon mus plan to change Tesla State incorporation of Delware
00:06:50
Texas's typical behavior for an entrepreneur ho looks for an alternative he can't gets what he wants um
00:06:55
shareholders need to take a hard look at how transitioning out of Delaware might
00:06:58
impact their rights in the companies governments these shareholders aren't going away um you know and and this is
00:07:05
the same judge who oversaw the lawsuit um Twitter with the Twitter he had to buy it this judge is showing him um he's
00:07:14
looking for a nicer judge right uh in Texas um well maybe his brother could get on the chance to record a do I mean
00:07:22
at the end of the day I love the term fiduciary yeah and fiduciary is very simple when you
00:07:30
when you get to a point in your life where you're worried about all right once I'm sick once I die I need someone
00:07:36
to represent my interest and see you appoint a fiduciary for your state and it's a wonderful term and one of our
00:07:42
abilities as a as humans as a species is we can trust other people to serve our interests maybe when it doesn't serve
00:07:49
their own because they agree to be fiduciaries and boards are supposed to be fiduciaries for all stakeholders and
00:07:55
I think he owns about I don't know 12 or 15% of the company which means that they
00:07:59
are supposed to represent the other 85% they're supposed to represent the community they're supposed to represent
00:08:04
National Security and this board is I mean they're just horrible fiduciaries they have absolutely they represent or
00:08:15
have tried to represent one stakeholder and one stakeholder only and Delaware has just said you when you're a public
00:08:23
company and you sell shares to retail investors you have certain obligations and this board isn't living up to it
00:08:30
he's all roads lead to the same place he is going to have to find threat and needle between by finding someone
00:08:36
credible who also he thinks will do anything he wants and those two are in direct contradiction with each other
00:08:42
well it's not clear that Texas judges will be roll over not necessarily like that it's a big risk but whatever he
00:08:48
likes to do this I don't think that's going to happen he's not going to incorporate in Texas he's not all roads
00:08:54
65% of companies are Incorporated in Delaware because of their law you know their friendly business friendly Lawes
00:08:59
he's going to have to get he's going to have to appoint new people to the board who serve on and one of them is going to
00:09:05
have to serve on the compensation committee and such that can you imagine i''d be like no thank you well I I I
00:09:12
actually think he'll be able to I think there's a lot of people it's like no one
00:09:15
ever said that anyone would be in Trump's cabinet I think the seduction to be near the seat of power is too huge
00:09:19
for people also threat of lawsuits if you're if you're I wouldn't be a director of that company saved my life I
00:09:25
mean yeah but here's the bad news Cara someone who served on a lot of boards you get D Insurance there's only do you
00:09:30
realize the people the people who served on enron's board they had to give some of their
00:09:36
compensation you basically have to murder people to get in trouble as a board member you just they're so
00:09:43
protected that's why this ruling is amazing don't you think this is I have That's Why Us never seen this before I
00:09:51
have never seen a a a a compensation package rejected and it's it's retroactive he's not going to lose money
00:10:00
because he hasn't exercised the options but not only is he not getting the additional 75 billion he's been trying
00:10:05
to Blackmail the board from I mean there's no way they can give him that money now I mean they look so stupid
00:10:11
yeah he's going to have to he's going to have to appoint something resembling an
00:10:17
independent director to the compensation committee otherwise the next comp package is going to be rejected this
00:10:23
this Chancellor uh Chancellor McCormack I think that's how you refer to her she's just not impressed by Elon no
00:10:30
she's like no I'm going to look at the law cuz she's a woman back on I'm going to look at the law and and I'm going to
00:10:38
interpret the law and I need to send a signal to every board even the board of hot companies with a guy who tweets all
00:10:44
day that they have an obligation to be fiduciaries this is this is a good ruling for corporate governance and for
00:10:52
other corporations because cop has accelerated from 27 times an average worker Sol Sal to over
00:11:00
350 in the last 40 years and some of it is the coziness you talk about some of it is just um people are more
00:11:07
comfortable with people making billions of dollars whatever it might be but this
00:11:11
is yeah this is I I love this ruling and I think she's fantastic yeah she is she's great she it has a sense of like
00:11:18
I'm over you I'm not I've never was under you but I'm way over you kind of thing um anyway we'll see what goes on
00:11:24
he's going to do his Antics his loud mou he's like how many rules can you just keep breaking and you're you know a you
00:11:30
know what drives me crazy this idea that he's some bold uh speaker of Truth as my
00:11:36
wife that's her expression he's not a bold speaker of truths he's just a toddler it's a badly behaved toddler
00:11:42
he's turning into he's turning into a cautionary tail because he is there's just no getting around it he is a bold
00:11:48
Visionary genius when it comes to products and risk-taking I I think on the whole he's been good for the world I
00:11:55
wouldn't want to press a button where he just you know never immigrated to America going to be you know you got to
00:12:00
give the guy his due but he's just totally he's a cautionary Tale

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

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    Most shocking
  • 80
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  • 75
    Biggest twist
  • 70
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Episode Highlights

  • Elon Musk's Compensation Package Voided
    A Delaware court voided Elon Musk's $55 billion compensation package from Tesla, calling it unfair to shareholders.
    “An unfathomable sum and unfair to shareholders.”
    @ 00m 03s
    February 05, 2024
  • Elon's Reaction to the Ruling
    Elon Musk responded to the ruling by suggesting shareholders vote to incorporate Tesla in Texas.
    “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.”
    @ 00m 36s
    February 05, 2024
  • Court Critiques Tesla's Board
    The judge criticized Tesla's board for being conflicted and incompetent in their decision-making.
    “This board has shown itself to be a giant rubber stamp for Elon Musk.”
    @ 01m 07s
    February 05, 2024
  • Shareholder Lawsuit Unprecedented
    The ruling marks a rare instance of a compensation package being rejected due to shareholder lawsuits.
    “I've never heard of this happening or seen it happen.”
    @ 01m 25s
    February 05, 2024
  • Implications for Corporate Governance
    The ruling sets a precedent for corporate governance, emphasizing fiduciary responsibilities.
    “This is a good ruling for corporate governance.”
    @ 10m 50s
    February 05, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • This board has shown itself to be a giant rubber stamp for Elon Musk.
    What's Next for Elon Musk After Judge Voids Tesla Pay Package
  • I've never heard of this happening or seen it happen.
    What's Next for Elon Musk After Judge Voids Tesla Pay Package
  • The fact that a court has said you are so incompetent and so conflicted.
    What's Next for Elon Musk After Judge Voids Tesla Pay Package
  • This is a good ruling for corporate governance.
    What's Next for Elon Musk After Judge Voids Tesla Pay Package
  • He's just a badly behaved toddler.
    What's Next for Elon Musk After Judge Voids Tesla Pay Package

Key Moments

  • Court Ruling00:02
  • Compensation Package Voided00:03
  • Elon's Response00:36
  • Board Critique04:13
  • Corporate Governance Implications10:50

Tension Over Time

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