Elon Musk, who was testifying in a Delaware court on Wednesday to refute claims that his $56 billion pay package was based on simple performance goals and approved by a compliant board of directors, claimed that he was entirely focused on Tesla (TSLA.O) in the year 2017 as the battery-powered vehicle manufacturer was in “crisis.”
Musk, who is renowned for his confrontational testimony, stated in his opening statement to the court that he believed it was “very doubtful” that Tesla Inc will be able to realize his vision in 2016. This required his undivided concentration.
Richard Tornetta, a Tesla shareholder, filed a lawsuit against Musk and the board in 2018 with the intention of demonstrating that Musk had used his influence over the board to impose restrictions on the package that did not need him to work at Tesla full-time.
Musk is currently juggling a disorganized overhaul of Twitter Inc., the social media platform he was compelled to purchase for $44 billion in a distinct legal battle before the exact judge after trying to back out of that deal. Musk’s testimony before Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick comes at a time when he is having difficulty managing that chaotic overhaul.
When asked about Tesla by his lawyer Evan Chesler, Musk responded that he was only focused on the company’s operations and added that he did not control the terms of the pay structure.
The company was struggling to exist in 2017 when the pay package was devised, according to Musk, the richest man on earth.
In reply to a query about whether he believed Tesla would succeed at the time, he responded that it should have been exceedingly unlikely.
Musk declared that he wouldn’t accept a salary arrangement that obliged him to log in and out of Tesla or put in a set number of hours. He claimed that he works essentially nonstop. Though, what a punch clock could achieve is unclear.
The billionaire remarked on the podium that he focuses his time where it is most needed, which in 2017 was at Tesla, in response to investors’ rising concerns about his focus on Twitter.
Therefore, allocation shifts according to the location of the crisis added Musk, who was dressed in a dark tie and suit.
This week, Musk announced that he would stay at the San Francisco headquarters of Twitter 24 hours a day until those issues were resolved.
The 2018 package, said to be Tornetta’s counsel Greg Varallo was $20 billion more than the state of Delaware’s yearly gross domestic product and has been requested to be revoked by the court.
The legal team representing Musk and the Tesla board, who are also the defendants, has presented the compensation package as a set of lofty aims that succeeded in increasing Tesla’s stock value by a factor of ten, from about $50 billion to even more than $600 billion.
They have claimed that the strategy was created by independent board officials with help from significant shareholders and advice from outside experts.
Musk’s testimony was previewed for the court on Monday and Tuesday through brief excerpts from his 2021 testimony in the case. In one video, Musk rejected the notion that the board ought to have talked about mandating that he spends additional time with Tesla.
Musk, who is also the creator of the tunnelling company The Boring Co. and the CEO of the rocket company SpaceX, said it would have been foolish.
Musk has a record of giving hostile evidence and frequently exhibits disdain for attorneys who press hard-hitting questions. He has denigrated rival attorneys, interrogated their contentment, and charged them with “extortion.”
Last year, “you are a bad human being” was what Musk said to the attorney representing a shareholder who was suing him over the 2016 acquisition of SolarCity.
