UMD’s Michael Faulkender: Tesla Stock Aside, ‘Musk Has Plenty Access to Money. He Wants to Change the Way Dialogue Takes Place’

Newswise — With Elon Musk selling $3.95 billion worth of Tesla stock since completing his $44 billion Twitter acquisition, it means he has sold more than $19 billion worth of the company’s stock since the deal was announced earlier this year. This, while laying off about 50 percent of Twitter staff.

Relatedly, former assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy Michael Faulkender says: “The valuation of Twitter that Musk paid required some cost containment, which he is more than doing...I have never thought that Musk was buying Twitter for financial reasons. He wants to change the way dialogue takes place in our nation."

Faulkender recently co-authored The Wall Street Journal op-ed “Censorship Is a Consumer Harm: It reduces the quality of tech companies’ services—effectively increasing prices.”

He adds: “[Musk] has plenty of access to money and Twitter has been profitable."

Biography: Michael Faulkender is a Professor of Finance at the Robert H Smith School of Business. He served as the Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the US Department of Treasury from 2019 to 2021.