[HN Gopher] Tesla directors agree to return $735M following clai...
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       Tesla directors agree to return $735M following claims they were
       overpaid
        
       Author : thunderbong
       Score  : 73 points
       Date   : 2023-07-18 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.engadget.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.engadget.com)
        
       | moralestapia wrote:
       | >The $735 million settlement will be paid back to Tesla in what's
       | called a "derivative lawsuit" -- the largest ever awarded by
       | Delaware's Court of Chancerty, according to Reuters.
       | 
       | Musk is really making a good impression there, lol.
        
       | hiddencost wrote:
       | They're paying $735 million back to Tesla, after Musk alone took
       | out $56 billion?
       | 
       | Seems like a slap on the wrist.
        
         | ajaimk wrote:
         | These are 2 different lawsuits.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | Fezzik wrote:
         | It's noted a few sentences in that there is a separate lawsuit
         | regarding the $56B...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jonas21 wrote:
         | Musk's pay package was tied to TSLA stock hitting certain price
         | targets -- if it failed to do so, he wouldn't be paid at all.
         | Here's what the NY Times wrote back in 2018 [1]:
         | 
         | > _Tesla is worth only about $59 billion today. If Mr. Musk
         | were somehow to increase the value of Tesla to $650 billion --
         | a figure many experts would contend is laughably impossible and
         | would make Tesla one of the five largest companies in the
         | United States, based on current valuations -- his stock award
         | could be worth as much as $55 billion._
         | 
         | Well, he managed to do the "laughably impossible" -- Tesla is
         | worth over $900 billion today. Shareholders should be thrilled.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/business/dealbook/tesla-e...
        
           | asdfgiasnio wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
             | slashdev wrote:
             | What's the crime? This is a really low brow drive by
             | comment from an anonymous user.
        
       | vanjajaja1 wrote:
       | > It was brought by shareholder Richard Tornette, who claimed
       | that "the largest compensation grant in human history" was given
       | to Musk, even though he didn't focus entirely on Tesla
       | 
       | Not understanding how this something related to law? Either he
       | was given the grant legally, or he wasn't. What does it matter
       | how it compares to other people or what percentage of his focus
       | was on Tesla?
        
         | wyre wrote:
         | It's related to law because shareholders are sueing Musk and
         | it's up to the courts to decide if it was granted legally or
         | not.
        
         | dghlsakjg wrote:
         | The board of directors has a legal responsibility to govern in
         | the interest of the shareholders.
         | 
         | The argument is that the board giving $750mm of shareholder
         | money to themselves is not in the interest of the shareholders
         | for somewhat obvious reasons.
        
           | onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
           | But didn't they agree to do it if Tesla's stock got to some
           | amount? Shouldn't they have written a limit in if they didn't
           | want to exceed a certain amount of compensation?
        
             | dghlsakjg wrote:
             | No. That's Musk's personal pay package as CEO. This was
             | just stock options that the board gave themselves for their
             | services
        
           | bryanlarsen wrote:
           | They didn't give directors $750mm of shareholder money. They
           | gave about a tenth of that in stock and appreciation did the
           | rest.
        
             | mikeryan wrote:
             | This is in reference to a different suit. It's for Elons
             | comp package not the boards comp.
             | 
             | Even in regards to the boards comp they were stock options
             | not stock so the compensation is based on the option strike
             | price not just appreciation.
        
             | dghlsakjg wrote:
             | Issuing stock still costs existing shareholders money in
             | terms of diluted ownership stake
        
       | taeric wrote:
       | Seems at least in spirit related to
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko8C3surjhM.
       | 
       | Also note for those skimming this is the board of directors. Not
       | "directors" in the company. If that makes any sense.
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-18 23:01 UTC)