It appears even the world’s wealthiest individual gripes about his job.
Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and social media company Twitter, was in in Delaware’s Chancery Court in Wilmington Wednesday to defend his $50 billion Tesla pay package instituted in 2018.
Musk and his entourage arrived at the courthouse on King Street through the back door. Wearing a black suit and dark tie, Musk, whose net worth well exceeds $100 billion, walked into the courtroom feet away from the courthouse’s Justice of the Peace Court where every day Delawareans line up to pay traffic fines and handle other minor legal matters.
He took the stand with a polite greeting from Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick. Musk, who is also chief executive of SpaceX, would later apologize to those in the room for appearing “slow” as he had taken an overnight flight to testify in Delaware.
His testimony was relatively sedate compared with the insults he wielded the last time he was called to testify in Delaware’s business court last year.
“I frankly don’t want to be (chief executive officer) of any company,” Musk said during testimony about how long he intended to remain Tesla CEO when the pay plan was instituted.
Musk’s testimony came on day three of a weeklong trial prompted by a Tesla shareholder seeking to invalidate Musk’s pay plan. The plan gave Musk the ability to acquire Tesla stock as the company achieved different milestones based on metrics like revenue and total value. Since the plan was initiated, Tesla’s value has ballooned from some $50 billion to more than $1 trillion before settling back down to around $600 billion.
Plaintiffs: Pay deal ‘conflicted’
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit state that the pay plan was not in the best interest of shareholders, devised and ratified by Musk’s friends and sycophants on Tesla’s governing board and approved by shareholders only after they were presented “misleading” information about the feasibility of the goals.
During testimony, Musk denied having outsized sway over the terms of the plan and attending any meetings in which the plan was discussed by the company’s board. At the time, he said he considered the goals built into the plan ambitious and unlikely, particularly as the company struggled to produce the Tesla Model 3, the company’s first vehicle aimed at a mass market.
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Musk said he was “entirely focused” on Tesla then and that it was a painful time.
“It’s a pain I would not wish to inflict upon anyone,” Musk said.
The lawsuit partially centers on whether Musk wielded outsized influence over Tesla’s board. An attorney for the plaintiffs questioned Musk questions about some of his work-related stunts, like sending a Tesla into space. Musk called it “an art piece that will last for millions of years.”
Musk was questioned about whether he consulted the company’s board on certain decisions, like naming himself “Technoking” of the company.
“I think comedy is legal,” Musk said upon questioning from the plaintiff’s attorney.
The testimony touched on when and how Musk communicated with Tesla board officials about the pay package and how he splits time between the various businesses he leads.
The defendants have argued the pay plan was necessary to keep Musk’s attention on growing Tesla while he also had leadership roles in other companies. Plaintiffs have argued that was unnecessary as Musk already owned a significant portion of the company before the 2018 pay plan.
While the lawsuit centers on his pay package from Tesla, his recent acquisition of Twitter and years of tweets also featured heavily during testimony.
Most recently, Musk said his time had been dominated by Twitter, which he acquired for $44 billion last month. Since then, he’s been criticized over changes critics say will enable lies and hate speech to proliferate. As well, 50% of the company’s workforce has been cut or quit, including many top executives.
On questioning, he said he intends to redirect his focus from Twitter once the company’s basic structure is fixed, which he said should be done by the end of the week.
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While not overly combative toward the plaintiff’s attorney, Musk’s testimony touched on one of his old foes, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which fined Musk in 2018 for a tweet appearing to speculate about taking Tesla private.
“The SEC continues to haunt me despite shareholders being greatly rewarded,” Musk said.
He did spar with the plaintiff’s attorney’s insistence that Musk answer yes or no questions with a single word.
“You are asking complex questions that can’t be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Musk said, calling such questions misleading.
At one point, McCormick, the judge, chided Musk for his long elaborations.
“We can all listen to this all day. It’s very interesting, but I don’t think it was responsive to the question, which I’ve now forgotten,” McCormick told Musk.
The testimony lasted less than three hours, and Musk departed the courthouse flanked by his entourage without responding to calls for comment on the case.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.
