Is Tesla keeping Twitter afloat? Elon sells stock, latest Tesla stock dumps

Elon Musk lets go of another £2.95 billion, as Tesla and Twitter struggle in what looks like a dual war with controversy effects and general trade recessions that every business worldwide is facing. 

This news arrives after November's sale of almost 20 million Tesla shares (TSLA), and Tesla's shareholders are speaking out more frequently about these new bold moves.

In April, during which he liquidated a sizable percentage of Tesla in preparation for his £36 billion purchase of Twitter (unlisted), Musk promised there would be no more sales of Tesla shares. However, he sold another amount in November.

Based on an SEC filing, Musk sold his latest set of shares this past week on Monday-Wednesday. The median sale price per share ranged from about £127 to about £144 throughout the course of the several deals in which they were sold, which could worry investors who are already on the breadline.

No reason given

No explanation was given. Nevertheless, Musk is the first to confess that Twitter is losing a lot of cash as a result of a sharp decrease in revenue and that the firm has a large debt burden with high borrowing costs. Although there have been many cutbacks, he has already been reducing spending.

Although he did recently reference the risk of going into debt during “turbulent macroeconomic conditions,” he wrote in a tweet. Since March, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates seven times, most recently by 0.5%.

So far this year, Telsa stock has dropped by roughly 60%. Early trading for this week shows a small increase.

The Twitter crisis endures as Musk utilises Tesla as a private cash register to get back into the black at Twitter that grows more serious daily as advertisers quit Twitter amid escalating Musk-centred problems, to paraphrase analyst Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities.

Given that most business nowadays is driven by tactical attention, it is still being determined whether or not that assertion is accurate.

Ives wonders when this feedback loop will end, since buying Twitter, Musk has shifted the firm's narrative away from the major overhaul of EVs to a “funding source” funding the rebound of Twitter, which may be the most expensive tech acquisition in the history of M&A.

Elon fought tooth and nail to get out of the deal, but in the end, paid for Twitter in October and took the social media giant private. Due to ambiguity around its moderation practices, some advertisers withdrew, considerably taxing finances.

The idea of a company in chaos has been fuelled by Musk's own frequent and occasionally combative tweets, particularly those aimed at former Twitter workers and in email leaks.

Owing to the trades, Musk's position as the best-earning individual on the planet has plummeted to second, after LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault.

Analyst confusion, claims of Twitter suspensions for doxxing

A number of well-known tech journalists were abruptly removed from Twitter on Thursday, including those who have written about the social networking site giant's erratic leadership under entrepreneur Elon Musk in previous weeks.

Writers for The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, Mashable, and Aaron Rupar, an investigative reporter, all had their profiles vanish on Tuesday night.

All of those journalists have reported on Musk's £36bn acquisition of Twitter, the repercussions of his firing half of the firm's staff, and the decision by the company to block, then unblock, then reblock an account that followed Musk's private jet travels.

The accounts' statement only states that they have been suspended for breaking Twitter's rules.

Musk then said that the journalists were punished for disclosing his “real-time whereabouts and threatening my family,” while having previously referred to himself as a “free speech absolutist”. Later, he said that individuals who had been barred had inadvertently published “assassination coordinates” in their coverage of the @ElonJet Twitter account.

Musk posted a poll to his 121mn followers, asking them whether the accounts should be unfrozen right away or after a 7-day suspension.

Musk’s Tweet in reply was that taking a vacation from Twitter was “good for the soul”.