Sina Science and Technology News On the morning of November 17, Beijing time, it was reported that James Murdoch, a member of the board of directors of Tesla (the son of Murdoch, a world-famous media tycoon), disclosed that Elon Musk had identified a potential successor to the CEO of the company in the past few months.
Recently, a court in Delaware, the United States, began to try the lawsuit submitted by Tesla investors, that is, Tesla's management gave CEO Mask an unprecedented high salary in an unreasonable way (the key is the stock option incentive plan). James Murdoch disclosed the above information when he attended the court hearing.
It is reported that James Murdoch has served as a director of Tesla for about five years. In the Delaware court, the plaintiff's lawyer asked Murdoch whether Musk had recently discussed looking for a successor to Tesla's CEO.
Murdoch replied that in the months since the witness statement by the opposing lawyer, Mask has indeed discussed the proper person to take over.
But at the hearing, some members of Tesla's board of directors said that they believed that Musk would not leave Tesla, and the company had no plan to change its CEO.
Before the trial of the lawsuit, the lawyers of the plaintiff of Tesla shareholders pointed out that in 2018, Musk received a stock option award plan worth 50 billion dollars from Tesla. Such a high salary is unnecessary, because Musk has publicly said that his generation will actively participate in Tesla's affairs for the rest of the time.
On Wednesday local time, Musk himself testified that the reason why he won these salary plans from Tesla was to provide funds for his space exploration program (especially to enable mankind to survive on multiple planets in the future). According to the plan, Musk plans to use his private space enterprise SpaceX to achieve the grand goal of human settlement on Mars.
Musk said that when negotiating the salary plan with the Board of Directors, he clearly pointed out that if he spent too much time on Tesla, he was not sure whether this would meet the larger goals and interests (referring to the space program).
Some shareholders questioned that Musk managed several companies at the same time, including Tesla, SpaceX, etc. He didn't spend much time in Tesla, so it was difficult to call him Tesla's "full-time" CEO. Just last month, Musk spent $44 billion to acquire social media Twitter, adding another private company.
On the third day of the trial, Musk told the plaintiff's lawyer Greg Varallo that he did not serve on the compensation committee of Tesla's board of directors (the committee determined Musk's sky high salary scheme).
However, Musk also admitted that on June 6, 2017, the board of directors of Tesla held the first meeting on Musk's personal salary plan, and he attended this meeting.
At the pre-trial hearing, Musk said that the decision process on his salary plan was a bit like "I negotiate with myself". The plaintiff of Tesla shareholders said that the board of directors of Tesla was weak and did nothing but listen to the order issued by Musk.
Musk also disclosed another important information, that is, he did not seek permission from the board of directors of Tesla when he disclosed some material information about Tesla, a listed company, on Twitter. This information includes comments on Tesla's share price and fluctuations in supply chain costs.
Musk, who is 51 years old this year, mentioned that he flew from Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, California to Delaware by "Red Eye Flight" (night flight). He said in court that he had asked some engineers of Tesla to check the software code of Twitter, and the members of Tesla's board of directors had no objection.
He said that less than 50 engineers participated in the review of Twitter software code on a voluntary basis. The whole process lasted only a few days and is now over. Murdoch, the above director, testified that Tesla's audit committee discussed the matter and kept an ongoing focus.
After joining Twitter recently, Musk made large-scale layoffs and launched some new product functions. He said that it is expected that this week, the basic organizational restructuring of Twitter will be completed.
When answering the questions of the plaintiff's lawyer Vavaro, Musk also appeared self contradictory. Previously, his lawyer described in the pre-trial hearing that Musk "closely" participated in all affairs of Tesla, from the strategic development direction to product design, and his work investment was worthy of his salary plan.
But Musk himself said on Wednesday: "I'm not sure I can use the word 'tight'."
During the questioning session of the defendant's lawyer, Musk defended the profit and share price assessment indicators set in his stock option plan. He said that according to Tesla's operating conditions at that time, he was not sure that he would be able to achieve these assessment objectives.
Musk talked about the media reports and market reactions in 2018, that is, the outside world believed that the assessment objectives in the Musk Option Award Plan were impossible to achieve. At that time, Tesla almost became the most heavily short listed stock in the history of the American capital market. In addition, there was a public opinion that Musk's salary plan was actually a psychological tactic to raise Tesla's share price.
After the salary plan was approved, Tesla's share price rose by as much as 1200%, and its market value rose to $700 billion at its peak. However, it has dropped from the highest level to less than $600 billion.
Musk testified that he was not clear about the process behind his salary plan. He also said that at that time, Tesla's largest external shareholder "Capital Group" voted against Musk's salary plan, and he has not contacted Capital Group since then.
In court, Musk also took the opportunity to criticize the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. In 2018, because of the "privatization acquisition" on Twitter, Musk was sued by the SEC. Later, in the settlement agreement, Musk was forced to resign as chairman of Tesla.
Musk said in the court that why did the SEC not pay attention to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX? The company recently went bankrupt, causing investors to lose billions of dollars of capital, but the SEC is still chasing after itself, "This is unreasonable."
