(Reuters) – Shares of Tesla Inc fell on Monday as chief Elon Musk, known for his Twitter banter, proposed the sale of about a tenth of his holdings in the electric-car maker after conducting a poll on the social network.
The poll asking Musk’s over 62.5 million followers if he should sell stock garnered more than 3.5 million votes, with 57.9% of the people voting “yes”.
Here is a timeline tracing Musk’s candid Twitter posts that have impacted the market.
* Aug. 7, 2018: Shares closed up nearly 11% after Musk tweeted https://reut.rs/3o2nOEw during market hours: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
Later that month, a post on Tesla’s public blog announced that Musk had abandoned the attempted privatization process.
In September 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Musk for fraud and sought to remove him from Tesla. [https://reut.rs/3mTlpws]
* May 1, 2020: Tesla erased around $13 billion from its market value after Musk tweeted “Tesla stock price is too high.” [https://reut.rs/3bSzqUY]
* Dec. 20, 2020: Dogecoin soared after Musk tweeted, “One word: Doge.”
* Jan. 25, 2021 – Musk tweeted he “kinda loves Etsy”, taking the e-commerce company’s stock to a record high.
* Jan. 26, 2021: GameStop surged 50% after Musk tweeted “Gamestonk!!”, along with a link to Reddit’s Wallstreetbets stock trading discussion group, where supporters affectionately refer to the Tesla CEO as “Papa Musk.”
* Jan. 28, 2021: Polish games producer CD Projekt’s shares rose after Musk tweeted “The esthetics of Cyberpunk are incredible btw…..”
* Jan. 29, 2021: Musk adds “#bitcoin” to his Twitter bio, driving a 14% surge in the largest cryptocurrency.
In January, total market value of all cryptocurrencies reached more than $1 trillion for the first time. The billionaire has since taken the tag off.
* Feb. 4, 2021: Musk tweets “Doge” in reference to a cryptocurrency based on a popular internet meme. He later tweeted, “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto.” and “I am become meme, Destroyer of shorts.” Dogecoin surged more than 60%.
* May 7, 2021: Musk tweeted “Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution!”
* May 9, 2021: Dogecoin tanked after Musk called it “a hustle” on SNL. Musk tweeted “SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year – Mission paid for in Doge – 1st crypto in space – 1st meme in space To the mooooonnn!!”
* May 12: Cryptocurrencies tumbled after Musk tweeted Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as a payment, and “Energy usage trend over past few months is insane.”
* June 4, 2021: Bitcoin fell more than 7% after Musk tweeted “#Bitcoin”, a broken-heart emoji and a picture of a couple discussing a break.
June 14, 2021: Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related firms surged when Musk tweeted “When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”
* Oct. 14, 2021: Musk tweeted he was in talks with airlines about installing Starlink, a satellite-based broadband service owned by his rocket company SpaceX. Shares of in-flight internet provider Gogo Inc fell.
* Nov. 2, 2021: Musk tweeted “No Contract Has Been Signed Yet” with Hertz, after the car rental firm announced a massive deal with Tesla. Shares of Tesla and Hertz fell.
(Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
