Vanguard vote switch helped pass Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $56B pay package (opens in new tab)

(reuters.com)

9 points3pm1y ago11 comments

11 comments

Huge vote of confidence for Musk. Also remember that Musk is paid in shares, the vote was whether he should get a significantly increased influence in Tesla.

Curious what will happen to the court case. Can a court control a company against the repeated votes of share holders?

3pmOP1y ago

I guess the point here is that a huge percentage (7% just for Vanguard) of votes was not decided by the actual share holders. These shares are passively invested because Tesla is included in indexes like S&P 500. So the decision on the 7% of the votes was made by a few Vanguard execs. I'm not arguing for or against the decision, just stating the fact that it is much easier to convince a few Vanguard managers instead of 7% of the actual share holders.

constantcrying1y ago

Yes, but Vanguard is very large and has a significant interest in the success of Tesla. This certainly wasn't a decision they took lightly and their vote in favor of Musk shows that they have a significant amount of trust in him.

3 more replies

Zigurd1y ago

Can a court control a company against the repeated votes of share holders?

Can a shareholder vote overturn a court decision? No. So what is the practical impact here? It doesn't change a board without outsiders, which was one problem with the pay package. It doesn't retrofit an arms-length negotiation, which was another problem. This isn't a new incentive agreement because crafting a replacement with the same outcome and same tax impacts is not possible. As far as I can tell Elon can't collect on the incentives, which also means shareholders take no hit on dilution, yet.

3pmOP1y ago

Does anyone know about BlackRock and State Street votes?

    But Vanguard, which has total assets of about $9 trillion, and other big index fund managers were always likely to be key to the vote. Representatives of Vanguard rivals BlackRock (BLK.N), and State Street (STT.N), declined to comment about their votes on Thursday.

Glyptodon1y ago

I saw this and have been trying to determine the best means of complaining to Vanguard about their vote.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

11 comments

constantcrying1y ago

Huge vote of confidence for Musk. Also remember that Musk is paid in shares, the vote was whether he should get a significantly increased influence in Tesla.

Curious what will happen to the court case. Can a court control a company against the repeated votes of share holders?

3pmOP1y ago

constantcrying1y ago

3 more replies

Zigurd1y ago

Can a court control a company against the repeated votes of share holders?

3pmOP1y ago

Does anyone know about BlackRock and State Street votes?

    But Vanguard, which has total assets of about $9 trillion, and other big index fund managers were always likely to be key to the vote. Representatives of Vanguard rivals BlackRock (BLK.N), and State Street (STT.N), declined to comment about their votes on Thursday.

Glyptodon1y ago

I saw this and have been trying to determine the best means of complaining to Vanguard about their vote.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse