In what might be described as a spiritual sequel to his Twitter takeover saga, Elon Musk has now decided to take a more direct route to his favorite pastime: suing people and being sued in spectacular fashion. The billionaire made headlines again this week after a Delaware court ruled against his jaw-dropping $56 billion Tesla pay package, a figure so enormous it managed to unite both financial analysts and incredulous internet users under one shared eyebrow raise.
But never one to leave a legal drama half-finished, Musk—perhaps sensing that his legal team could use some additional cardio—is now retaliating with a lawsuit of his own, filed in Texas. That’s right, just like your favorite western anti-hero, he’s headed south to settle things his way. The lawsuit alleges the Delaware Court of Chancery overstepped by declaring his megabucks compensation null and void which raises the philosophical question of whether decency or Delaware has jurisdiction over CEO bonuses measured in small nation’s GDPs.
Not surprisingly, this latest move comes just as Musk is urging Tesla shareholders to reincarnate the pay package, this time with the more comforting legal embrace of his new home state of Texas. Tesla, ever the helpful sidekick, is too putting the revised package up for a shareholder vote as if to say, Would you like to bless this again but with more cowboy hats this time?
The Delaware decision, written by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, pointed out such minor issues as the board of directors being slightly too friendly with Musk, calling them “supine servants” which loosely translates to “possibly incapable of saying no to a man who can launch a car into space for fun.” Musk refers to these criticisms as “false and misleading” which is also how some investors describe Tesla’s estimated delivery dates.
As the billion-dollar ping-pong match bounces between courtrooms and proxy statements, Tesla’s annual meeting approaches with oddly appropriate themes of accountability and celestial ambition which coincidentally also describe most of Musk’s Twitter feed. Shareholders will have their say, though they might also wish for a simpler time when company meetings were about dividends and not existential debates over one man’s net worth trajectory.
After all, when your CEO names his kids using characters once reserved for passwords, even his lawsuits come with plot twists.