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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 legal setback regarding his $55 billion compensation package from Tesla, which was voided by Delaware Judge Kathleen McCormack. The judge deemed the compensation unfair to shareholders and criticized the flawed approval process.

The hosts analyze the implications of the ruling, highlighting the conflicts of interest among Tesla's board members, who they describe as a "rubber stamp" for Musk. They mention the judge's order for Tesla to cancel stock options valued at around $51 billion.

Elon Musk's response to the ruling included a post on X, where he suggested shareholders vote to move Tesla's incorporation to Texas. The hosts express skepticism about this move and discuss the potential legal ramifications.

The conversation touches on the broader implications for corporate governance and fiduciary responsibilities, emphasizing the need for independent oversight in executive compensation decisions.

Overall, the episode critiques Musk's behavior and the board's incompetence, framing the ruling as a significant moment for corporate accountability.

TL;DR

Elon Musk's $55 billion Tesla compensation package was voided by a Delaware judge due to conflicts of interest and unfairness to shareholders.

Video

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Elon Musk suffered a major loss in a
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Delaware Court this week when a judge
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voided his $55 billion compensation
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package from Tesla uh judge Kathleen
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McCormack uh called the compensation
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quote an unfathomable sum and it was
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unfair to shareholders and the process
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leading to its 2018 approval was deeply
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flawed when you read through the
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documents it really it was such a backs
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scratchy situation among the board
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members who are all friends of his um
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apparently one of them cried how how
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much he loved
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on it which was kind of disturbing uh
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Elon responded to the ruling on X
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posting never incorporate your company
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in the state of Delaware too late Elon
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and also you should have had a stock
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that put you in control control of the
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Dual class shareholders which you didn't
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do either um so too bad that if you had
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a time machine um were you surprised by
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the ruling first of all the judge let me
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gives you more facts the judge ordered
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Tesla to cancel the stock options order
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to Elon valued at about 51 billion which
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is where most of his compensation is
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Tesla's directors now have to figure out
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a new Compensation Plan that passes
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legal muster and keeps Elon happy and
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does it at an arms length which is good
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luck with that because this board has
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shown itself to be a giant rubber stamp
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for Elon Musk um we haven't heard if
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he's going to appeal but after a poll on
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X he's now saying Tesla will hold a
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shareholder vote to incorporate in Texas
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um anyway what does the ruling mean for
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elon's Quest to get that 25% I've never
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I've never heard of this happening or
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seen it happen the fact that I've been
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on compensation committies are boards
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I've never had a shareholder lawsuit
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against
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compensation the schematic you put in
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place but to have a shareholder lawsuit
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I've heard of them like Martin cell had
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shareholder lawsuits constantly around
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his compensation but to have it rejected
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I mean effectively the shareholders
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decide who the board is and so if the
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shareholders decide who the board is who
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decides the compensation then
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technically the owners of the company
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have decided you know what what he or
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she gets I'm not a i don't believe you
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should limmit compensation I think we
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live in a capitalist society and I don't
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like the idea I I do believe that we
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should have a more progressive tax
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structure but anyways that's another
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talk show but this effectively says that
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this board is so incompetent and so
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conflicted that any decisions they make
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might not hold up in court because of
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the conflicts there even if you read the
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ruling they talk about the size of it
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but what they talk about is the
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conflicts and just how uh poor the
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rationalization was for giving him this
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cuz is much as the compensation was I
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mean just to just to be fair and try and
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call balls and Strikes him getting in an
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incremental 50 billion if you increases
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the value of the company 500 billion
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that's that's not I've seen
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compensation plans that on you know I
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mean it's exceptional but on a
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proportionate size or percentage of
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value increase it wasn't outrageous what
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this says is you know what's going to
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end up happening here he's not going to
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be able to reincorporate all this all
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these threats all these jazz hands all
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this fake can you do that when I was
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reading that I was like I'm not sure you
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can I don't um the I should have just
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said right off the bat um I don't I
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don't I don't know but the the notion
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that and then he's just he's just so
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ridiculous he says he he said I want to
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meet with shareholders and convince them
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to divest from Tesla or any companies
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ever they are not welcome well Elon I
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don't know if you've heard or you
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understand corporate structure MH but Co
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the luxury of shareholders not vice
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versa you don't get to decide who your
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shareholders are the shareholders get to
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decide what CEO they want mhm and if did
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you see the movie did you see Pulp
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Fiction long time ago yeah well there's
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a scene in it where I think his name is
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great actor Vin rang yeah yeah he was in
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Miss imposses yeah I think he is knocked
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onc conscious um they put a gag ball on
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him and they rape him he had much more
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domain and dignity than this board has
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right now this is this board has been
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just molested they should show up to the
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next annual meeting with a gag ball
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because that's they
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are I the fact that a court has said you
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are so incompetent and so conflicted and
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you are such terrible fiduciaries for
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shareholders that we're going to just
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reject his compensation somewhat because
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of the size of it but just because this
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Bo wasn't the size I I have to tell you
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you know cuz you could make an argument
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that he deserves it see it wasn't how
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the number they got to um you certainly
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can make a cojen argument he deserves
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it's a lot of money but still um uh but
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the the details like the going on
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vacation one of them I think Antonio
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Garcia's their best friends the brothers
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on there uh what one of them was a CFO
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and he cried because he loved Elon so
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much I mean you cannot do there's no
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Independence among any of these people
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you know on this board and so just was a
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hands you know you're supposed to have I
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mean boards are cozy let's be honest
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come on like you know that like they're
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very cozy with the CEOs intend to give
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the CEOs what they want but at least
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they have they pretend that they're not
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doing quite this and so it's so bad
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that's and which is this is something
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we've just talked about without any
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particular knowledge it's so obvious
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it's a rubber stamp of a board they
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don't stop him from doing damage via his
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tweets they didn't control his um
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Behavior they made worry about his drug
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use but they don't do anything about it
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or don't think they can do anything
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about it so this is just another this is
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the least the least surprising thing
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that their pay package was done you know
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by Elon essentially Elon wrote it and
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then they rubber stamped it right well
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the Delaware chanelly Court he gets to
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appeal to the Supreme Court of Delaware
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it'll get they will they will uphold uh
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I think Chancellor McCormack's
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recommendation but I mean this comes on
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the heels of him deciding that at
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threatening the board that if they
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didn't give him $75 billion didn't give
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him $75 billion in additional
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compensation he's still doing that yeah
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he was going to steal the IP from the
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company and start his only I I mean the
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the the board the Delaware Court has
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said your board your board isn't
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competent what what ultimately ends up
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happening here though I mean all the
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threats and the jazz hands around moving
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to moving to Texas he's going to have to
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replace the compensation committee and
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get someone to lead the compensation
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committee who has some credibility and
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also doesn't want to be lost there's a
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there's a story from writers about this
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that said legal experts said musk would
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almost certainly be sued by investors if
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he tried to move the state of
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incorporation to Texas particularly if
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he was seen as a move to secure his pay
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package rather than obtain some benefits
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for Tesla shh holders it's so it's so in
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plain sight uh Elon mus plan to change
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Tesla State incorporation of Delware
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Texas's typical behavior for an
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entrepreneur ho looks for an alternative
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he can't gets what he wants um
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shareholders need to take a hard look at
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how transitioning out of Delaware might
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impact their rights in the companies
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governments these shareholders aren't
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going away um you know and and this is
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the same judge who oversaw the lawsuit
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um Twitter with the Twitter he had to
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buy it this judge is showing him um he's
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looking for a nicer judge right uh in
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Texas um well maybe his brother could
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get on the chance to record a do I mean
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at the end of the day I love the term
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fiduciary yeah and fiduciary is very
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simple when you
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when you get to a point in your life
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where you're worried about all right
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once I'm sick once I die I need someone
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to represent my interest and see you
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appoint a fiduciary for your state and
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it's a wonderful term and one of our
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abilities as a as humans as a species is
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we can trust other people to serve our
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interests maybe when it doesn't serve
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their own because they agree to be
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fiduciaries and boards are supposed to
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be fiduciaries for all stakeholders and
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I think he owns about I don't know 12 or
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15% of the company which means that they
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are supposed to represent the other
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85% they're supposed to represent the
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community they're supposed to represent
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National Security and this board is I
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mean they're just horrible fiduciaries
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they have absolutely they represent or
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have tried to represent one stakeholder
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and one stakeholder only and Delaware
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has just said you when you're a public
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company and you sell shares to retail
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investors you have certain obligations
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and this board isn't living up to it
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he's all roads lead to the same place he
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is going to have to find threat and
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needle between by finding someone
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credible who also he thinks will do
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anything he wants and those two are in
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direct contradiction with each other
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well it's not clear that Texas judges
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will be roll over not necessarily like
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that it's a big risk but whatever he
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likes to do this I don't think that's
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going to happen he's not going to
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incorporate in Texas he's not all roads
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65% of companies are Incorporated in
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Delaware because of their law you know
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their friendly business friendly Lawes
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he's going to have to get he's going to
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have to appoint new people to the board
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who serve on and one of them is going to
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have to serve on the compensation
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committee and such that can you imagine
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i''d be like no thank you well I I I
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actually think he'll be able to I think
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there's a lot of people it's like no one
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ever said that anyone would be in
00:09:16
Trump's cabinet I think the seduction to
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be near the seat of power is too huge
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for people also threat of lawsuits if
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you're if you're I wouldn't be a
00:09:23
director of that company saved my life I
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mean yeah but here's the bad news Cara
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someone who served on a lot of boards
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you get D Insurance there's only do you
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realize the people the people who served
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on enron's
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board they had to give some of their
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compensation you basically have to
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murder people to get in trouble as a
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board member you just they're so
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protected that's why this ruling is
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amazing don't you think this is I have
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That's Why Us never seen this before I
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have never seen a a a a compensation
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package rejected and it's it's
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retroactive he's not going to lose money
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because he hasn't exercised the options
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but not only is he not getting the
00:10:03
additional 75 billion he's been trying
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to Blackmail the board from I mean
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there's no way they can give him that
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money now I mean they look so stupid
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yeah he's going to have to he's going to
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have to appoint something resembling an
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independent director to the compensation
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committee otherwise the next comp
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package is going to be rejected this
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this Chancellor uh Chancellor McCormack
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I think that's how you refer to
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her she's just not impressed by Elon no
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she's like no I'm going to look at the
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law cuz she's a woman back on I'm going
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to look at the law and and I'm going to
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interpret the law and I need to send a
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signal to every board even the board of
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hot companies with a guy who tweets all
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day that they have an obligation to be
00:10:47
fiduciaries this is this is a good
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ruling for corporate governance and for
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other corporations because
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cop has accelerated from 27 times an
00:10:57
average worker Sol Sal to over
00:11:00
350 in the last 40 years and some of it
00:11:03
is the coziness you talk about some of
00:11:05
it is just um people are more
00:11:07
comfortable with people making billions
00:11:09
of dollars whatever it might be but this
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is yeah this is I I love this ruling and
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I think she's fantastic yeah she is
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she's great she it has a sense of like
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I'm over you I'm not I've never was
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under you but I'm way over you kind of
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thing um anyway we'll see what goes on
00:11:24
he's going to do his Antics his loud mou
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he's like how many rules can you just
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keep breaking and you're you know a you
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know what drives me crazy this idea that
00:11:32
he's some bold uh speaker of Truth as my
00:11:36
wife that's her expression he's not a
00:11:37
bold speaker of truths he's just a
00:11:39
toddler it's a badly behaved toddler
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he's turning into he's turning into a
00:11:43
cautionary tail because he is there's
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just no getting around it he is a bold
00:11:48
Visionary genius when it comes to
00:11:50
products and risk-taking I I think on
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the whole he's been good for the world I
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wouldn't want to press a button where he
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just you know never immigrated to
00:11:58
America going to be you know you got to
00:12:00
give the guy his due but he's just
00:12:02
totally he's a cautionary
00:12:08
Tale

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Most talked-about
  • 60
    Most satisfying
  • 60
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • Elon Musk's Compensation Package Voided
    A Delaware judge voided Elon Musk's $55 billion compensation package from Tesla, calling it unfair to shareholders.
    “An unfathomable sum and unfair to shareholders.”
    @ 00m 11s
    February 05, 2024
  • Court Ruling on Board Competence
    The ruling highlights the board's incompetence and conflicts of interest, raising questions about corporate governance.
    “This board is so incompetent and so conflicted.”
    @ 04m 18s
    February 05, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Compensation Voided00:03
  • Elon's Response00:32
  • Board Incompetence04:18
  • Cautionary Tale12:08

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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