Elon Musk sells USD 3.95 billion worth of Tesla stock
Washington (AP): Twitter's new owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold nearly USD 4 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to regulatory filings.
Musk, who bought Twitter for USD 44 billion, sold 19.5 million shares of the electric car company from November 4 to November 8, according to Tuesday's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He sold USD 7 billion of his Tesla stock in August as he worked to finance the Twitter purchase he was trying to get out of at the time.
In all, Musk has sold more than USD 19 billion worth of Tesla stock since April, including those in Tuesday's filings, likely to fund his share of the Twitter purchase.
Most of Musk's wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla Inc. On Tuesday, his personal net worth dropped below USD 200 billion, according to Forbes, but he is still the world's richest person.
Musk had lined up banks including Morgan Stanley to help finance the Twitter deal. His original share of the deal was about USD 15.5 billion, Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives estimated.
But if equity investors dropped out, Musk would be on the hook to replace them or throw in more of his own money.
Tesla's shares closed down USD 5.78 or 2.9 per cent, at USD 191.30. The stock has lost 52 per cent of its value since the start of this year.
In comparison, the S and P 500 index has lost about 20 per cent of its value so far this year.
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Govt allocated space for Manmohan Singh's memorial, Congress playing 'cheap politics': Nadda
New Delhi, Dec 28: BJP president JP Nadda on Saturday said the Centre had allocated space for Manmohan Singh's memorial and informed his family about it as he accused the Congress of indulging in "cheap politics" over the former prime minister's cremation.
The BJP chief's reaction came after the Congress accused the Centre of insulting Singh, the country's first Sikh prime minister, by performing his last rites at Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated spot that could be turned into his memorial.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the BJP-led Centre had "totally insulted" Singh, a great son of Mother India and the first prime minister from the Sikh community, by performing his last rites at Nigambodh Ghat.
Reacting sharply, Nadda said, "It's very unfortunate that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and incumbent Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge are not refraining from playing politics even over the former prime minister's sad demise."
"No amount of condemnation is enough for such cheap thinking of the Congress. The Congress, which never gave real respect to Manmohan Singh when he was alive, is now playing politics in the name of his respect," he added.
The Union minister also said the government under Prime MInister Narendra Modi had allocated space for Singh's memorial and also informed his family about it.
"Yet, the Congress is spreading lies," he said.
"Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and other Congress leaders should refrain from indulging in such cheap politics," Nadda said.
