During his "My Take," Thursday, "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney reacted to a Delaware judge voiding Elon Musk's $56 billion Tesla compensation package, arguing the decision could push the world's richest man to leave "The First State" and re-incorporate in Texas.
: Elon Musk really wanted his $56 billion payout.
It’s a lot of money, but he met all the performance requirements and the board approved it.
The Delaware Court of Chancery is where big business cases are judged.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France. (REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
The court said no. You don't deserve the money. It’s not fair. It’s excessive.
Predictably, Musk went ballistic.
He organized a poll on X asking if Tesla should move jurisdiction from Delaware to Texas.
Musk says the poll produced, "an unequivocal" yes. He's now going to poll shareholders.
Texas, by the way, has established its own business court.
Once again, Musk is at the center of an earthquake.
The judge in Delaware had essentially told Tesla what it could pay its chief executive.
There are plenty of very highly paid executives, whose companies use the Delaware court. So who is next?
A disgruntled shareholder gets upset over CEO pay.
Well, it’s the Delaware court that will decide what's excessive.
Musk is having none of it. He left California two years ago.
Fed up with what he called California's 'over-regulation, over-litigation and over-taxation."
Now he wants to leave the Delaware court. "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware," he says.
This is classic Musk. Move fast, force the issue. All hands on deck, get out of the way.
That has made him the most interesting, successful, and dynamic executive in the world, and one of the richest.
Maybe that’s what Delaware didn't like about him.