(as a side note I think exactly this is the reason Musk bought twitter; to have more control and protection from stock price manipulation through the platform)
It's funny that we accept the immense market cap of certain corporations, and the rapid changes of it, but not high CEO salaries. But this is what the CEO is paid for. A corporation is something abstract, it's worth whatever people are willing to pay for the stock, but a salary is something human and outrageous.
The ruling said there was a conflict of interest. Effectively his friends on the compensation committee conspired with him against the best interests of the shareholders.
If the shareholders get advice they believe is from independent agents representing their interests but instead is from plants representing Musk's interests then any opinions formed are not valid.
Hot take: he deserves to keep the package. Tesla increased $550B in value, of which 90% went to investors and 10% to him should he kept his package. It was extremely unlikely that he would hit the targets. The value of the “options” back when he was conditionally granted them was like $50M. They only grew in value astronomically because he increased the market cap an insane amount. This feels like a casino nullifying a roulette spin because the croupier didn’t spin it fast enough after it landed on 14 and you bet on 14.
$50M over 6 years, which at the time most likely wouldn’t have been needing to paid out at all unless he met the unfathomably unlikely targets.
>The value of the “options” back when he was conditionally granted them was like $50M.
Getting the options was contingent on market cap, so not sure this makes sense.
Besides, this is about Elon running over a captured board. When you read the series of events that lead to the pay package, that part makes more sense.
Clearly whatever attention he paid the company was enough to achieve the target. Maybe the other projects are just relaxation for him, like playing a video game.
Now that all the targets are achieved in a fraction of the time, its redefined as 'unfathomable'.
[1]. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/business/dealbook/tesla-e...
(If Mr. Musk were somehow to increase the value of Tesla to $650 billion — a figure many experts would contend is laughably impossible ...)