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Musk Sells About $8.5 Billion in Tesla Stock After Twitter Deal

The stock sales follow the Tesla CEO's deal to buy the social media company for about $44 billion.

Bree Fowler Senior Writer
Bree Fowler writes about cybersecurity and digital privacy. Before joining CNET she reported for The Associated Press and Consumer Reports. A Michigan native, she's a long-suffering Detroit sports fan, world traveler, wannabe runner and champion baker of over-the-top birthday cakes and all-things sourdough.
Expertise cybersecurity, digital privacy, IoT, consumer tech, smartphones, wearables
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Bree Fowler
Elon Musk on Twitter

Elon Musk remain's Tesla's largest shareholder. 

 Sarah Tew/CNET

Elon Musk sold about $8.5 billion worth of shares this week in the wake of his deal to buy Twitter , according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

Tesla's CEO sold about 4.4 million shares on Tuesday and Wednesday, then another 5.2 million shares on Thursday, CNBC reported, citing Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

That left him with around 163 million shares in the electric-vehicle maker, or nearly 16% of the company, the Journal said. Musk is Tesla's largest shareholder and owned about 17% of the company before this week's sales.

After news of the sales started to break, Musk tweeted Thursday night: "No further TSLA sales planned after today."

Earlier this week, Twitter accepted Musk's offer to buy it for $54.20 per share for a total of about $44 billion, but the deal still requires shareholder and regulatory approval.

Tesla shares rose about 3 percent in Friday morning trading.

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