Elon Musk Just Got Absolutely Owned

Boohoo.

Shut Down

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has lost his bid to get his absurdly astronomical pay package — currently valued at just north of $100 billion — reinstated.

In January, Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick deemed the largest compensation plan in US history null and void, arguing that Musk had full control over Tesla and its board, leading to a negotiation that was "deeply flawed."

A consequent shareholder vote in June unsurprisingly found that investors were willing to reinstate the compensation plan — but even that failed to convince McCormick.

"Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here," she wrote in an opinion on Monday. "Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable."

The news is bound to be yet another major thorn in the side of the world's richest man, who has been hoping for many years to further enrich himself through the payout. Musk has repeatedly lashed out at McCormick, warning to "never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware," following her January decision.

It's also a sign that Musk isn't technically above the law — despite the many signs lately suggesting the opposite.

My Tesla

Meanwhile, lawyers who sued Musk on behalf of Tesla shareholders have been awarded a monstrous $345 million attorney fee.

"We are pleased with Chancellor McCormick’s ruling, which declined Tesla’s invitation to inject continued uncertainty into Court proceedings and thank the Chancellor and her staff for their extraordinary hard work in overseeing this complex case," Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossmann attorneys wrote in a statement, as quoted by CNBC.

Tesla has since published a statement arguing that "the ruling is wrong, and we're going to appeal."

"This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners — the shareholders," the statement reads.

That appeal, according to Reuters, could take a full year to play out.

The compensation plan was originally valued at up to $56 billion when it was first conceived in 2018 and required Musk to hit specific company performance milestones.

Since then, Tesla's value has soared, which means it's worth almost twice that, given today's stock price.

Musk's own Tesla holdings are worth almost $150 billion, which would make him one of the richest men in the world without even considering any of his other investments.

Even now that he's the right-hand man of the new president of the United States, Musk would need to pass new legislation through Congress to overrule McCormick's decision, as the New York Times reports.

In other words, Musk will have to continue trying very hard to engorge himself on Tesla stock.

More on the compensation plan: Elon Musk Begs Tesla Shareholders to Vote for His $56 Billion Pay Package