Elon Musk’s 2018 Tesla pay package restored by Delaware court

Maddy Lauria

Elon Musk’s controversial $56bn pay package from Tesla was reinstated by the Delaware supreme court on Friday, two years after a lower court struck down the vast compensation deal as “unfathomable”.

The decision comes less than two months after Tesla shareholders approved a new plan that could be worth $1tn to Musk, already the world’s richest person, in a decade’s time. It overturns a ruling which had prompted a furious backlash from Musk.

Rescinding the pay deal would be “inequitable”, and would leave Musk “uncompensated for his time and efforts over a period of six years”, the Delaware supreme court justices wrote, echoing arguments from Tesla board members earlier this year.

At the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, this November, shareholders also approved a stopgap measure for Musk, ensuring – regardless of how the Delaware supreme court ruled on this appeal – that he would get the $56bn his supporters say he is owed.

Both of the compensation packages, as well as other pay plans approved by Tesla shareholders, require Musk to meet a number of lofty goals related to product development and increasing the company’s value in order to cash out on those awards.

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