Technology

Trading Day – Elon Musk sells $4 billion Tesla shares after Twitter deal

• 9 November 2022

According to the latest SEC filings, Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares after closing the Twitter deal. Musk sold 19.5 million more shares of Tesla, worth at least $3.95 billion.

Disney’s share price dropped nearly 7% following disappointing earnings, despite strong subscriber growth.

US markets’ growth remained muted as they await the full results of the midterm elections. The S&P 500 closed 0.6% higher, and the Nasdaq climbed 0.5%.

The Nikkei 225 is down 0.6% in early morning trade. The Hang Seng index declined 1.7% this morning.

In local news, Northam Platinum has finally made a full buy-out offer for Royal Bafokeng Platinum at a 20% premium.

Here is the biggest news of the day.

  • Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares after the Twitter deal. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission published Tuesday, Musk sold 19.5 million more shares of Tesla, worth at least $3.95 billion. Before he sold shares today, Musk owned about 25% of Tesla between stock and options. Musk sold almost $22 billion worth of Tesla shares in 2021. This year, he sold over $8 billion worth of stock in April and roughly $7 billion worth in August.
  • Disney earnings disappointed despite very strong subscriber growth. The share price dropped nearly 7% in after-hours trading. Streaming operating losses more than doubled from the same quarter last year, ballooning to $1.47 billion. Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said they expect operating losses to improve by about $200 million next quarter and to be even lower in 2023. Quarterly revenue came in at $20.1 billion, missing analyst estimates by nearly $1 billion. The company managed to add 12.1 million Disney+ subscribers, surpassing most analyst estimates and dwarfing the 2.4 million new subscribers that Netflix added.
  • Northam Platinum announced an offer to acquire the remaining Royal Bafokeng Platinum shares at a 20% premium. The offer to acquire all or a portion of the remaining RBPlat shares will be settled fully in cash or a combination of cash and Northam shares for a consideration of R172.70. The amount is determined as R180.50 paid to Royal Bafokeng Holdings less dividends declared by RBPlat in March 2022 and August 2022. The minimum cash consideration will be R54.40.
  • Renergen has lifted the trading halt on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Yesterday, at Renergen’s request, the ASX implemented a trading halt in its shares. The halt was requested in relation to a potential non-material capital raise that the company was contemplating on the ASX, but the company had already decided not to proceed with the capital raise prior to it being implemented.
  • Coronation Asset Management has acquired a beneficial interest in Motus such that its entire stake in the company now amounts to over 10%.

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