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If all else fails, Elon Musk can always count on his fan base turning out to back him. With\u00a0little over two days left<\/a>\u00a0before the deadline for remote voting closes, the Tesla<\/a> CEO and his otherwise media-shy chair, Robyn Denholm, have mounted a last-second\u00a0campaign blitz<\/a>\u00a0aimed at pushing his record pay deal over the finish line.<\/p>\n Their continued lobbying on his behalf all the way down to the wire suggests the risk of a \u2018no\u2019 vote at this Thursday\u2019s annual shareholder meeting is not negligent after that\u00a0major institutional investors<\/a>\u00a0such as Norway\u2019s $1.7 trillion\u00a0sovereign wealth fund<\/a>\u00a0and CalPERS, the largest public pension scheme in the U.S., both plan to veto his $55 billion pay deal.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, roughly 90% of retail shareholders who have voted have voted in favor of both resolutions,\u201d Musk\u00a0replied<\/a>\u00a0this weekend to\u00a0Zero Hedge<\/em>, a publication slanted against Tesla and EVs but pro-Musk thanks to his anti-establishment politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s retail investor community, estimated to hold just over\u00a040% of its stock<\/a>, is utterly unlike any other for a publicly traded corporation. <\/p>\n While Apple<\/a> can boast of similarly high figures, only Tesla\u2019s is highly organized, extremely motivated, and effective at amplifying gains or cushioning falls. <\/p>\n This helps explain why it still trades at growth stock levels of over 50 times next year\u2019s earnings despite\u00a0sales grinding to a halt<\/a>\u00a0and profit margins shrinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n Individuals such as Farzad Mesbahi<\/a>, Dave Lee,<\/a> and Warren Redlich<\/a> are well-known to small Tesla investors. <\/span><\/p>\n They<\/span> often host each other in a bid to reinforce the message that Musk will create generational wealth<\/a> while propelling Tesla to become the\u00a0world\u2019s most valuable company<\/a>.<\/p>\n Warning to all fund managers, banks and brokers \ud83c\udf10<\/p>\n The Tesla retail army, 10,000,000 people worldwide, will take action, when they discover in the next 3 months how you voted your proxies. Most funds and brokerage services are interchangeable. <\/p>\n Do this at your own risk.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/xKxo9agr0s<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ale\ud835\udd4fandra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama) June 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Small shareholders only became a pillar of support after Tesla soared thanks partly to a pandemic-era cocktail of record stimulus and rolling lockdowns. <\/p>\n This same combustible mixture helped spark the get-rich-quick\u00a0frenzy<\/a>\u00a0that launched the YOLO communities around\u00a0crypto tokens<\/a>, such as Musk\u2019s favored Dogecoin, and\u00a0meme stocks<\/a>\u00a0like GameStop<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the once close-knit group of small shareholders has\u00a0splintered<\/a>. <\/p>\n A few are now openly calling out the CEO they feel has been dishonest about the direction of the company, sold his shares near the top, and repeatedly abused his sway with leading social media influencers to keep the faithful placated.<\/p>\n This betrayal by critical Tesla fans has angered people like Yaman Tasdivar, who hosts a recurring Tesla Spaces on X that used to be called \u201cTesla will triple in 2022\u201d (it fell 65% that year thanks to Musk\u2019s Twitter<\/a> deal). <\/p>\n Many like him feel like these apostates among Tesla\u2019s faithful have been little more than fair-weather friends of Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n I’m taking names.@KoguanLeo<\/a>@CalPERS<\/a> @NicolaiTang1<\/a> @FredericLambert<\/a>@GerberKawasaki<\/a> @issgovernance<\/a> @GlassLewis<\/a><\/p>\n Who else is voting against Elon?<\/p>\n \u2014 Yaman Tasdivar (@ValueAnalyst1) June 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cI\u2019m taking names,\u201d he wrote, starting his list with Singapore-based billionaire Leo Koguan<\/a>. The latter, Tesla\u2019s third-largest<\/span> individual investor, has openly called for the board to remove Musk and\u00a0pledged to vote<\/a>\u00a0against his pay package immediately after it was\u00a0proposed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dillon Loomis, host of the Tesla-themed YouTube<\/a> show\u00a0Electrified<\/em>\u00a0with its 111,000 subscribers, warned these traitors would not be welcome back into the fold once Musk delivers on his promise to grow Tesla into the most valuable company in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get to try to sabotage one of the most important companies on the planet and then celebrate with us when the payoff for patience and trusting the man behind Tesla [\u2026] arrives,\u201d he\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n Even the devoted have their price, however. <\/p>\n Retail shareholder Redlich, best known for saying he would\u00a0lay down his life\u00a0for Musk, admitted that he sold a fifth of his personal holdings at $175 a share last month. <\/p>\n The lawyer, by training, blamed the move on the risk that Musk would resign in the event of a \u2018no\u2019 vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Anger at Musk\u2019s fair-weather friends for sabotaging the company<\/h2>\n
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