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Elon Musk pushing boundaries of CEO compensation packages  Yahoo Finance

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Elon Musk pushing boundaries of CEO compensation packages - Yahoo Finance

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X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is preparing for yet another change under its owner Elon Musk that seemingly no user has asked for.

According to X's Director of Engineering Haofei Wang, Musk's social media platform is preparing to remove public "likes" from users' profile page. This means that X users will no longer be able to browse what posts other users have liked.

"Yeah, we are making likes private," Wang said on X in response to a post by MacRumors researcher Aaron Perris.

Perris shared a post on Tuesday concerning a new flag he discovered in the X app for iOS, which completely turned off the likes tab on every X users' public profile when turned on.

As X users speculated on the platform about what this discovery could mean, X's Director of Engineering decided to weigh in.

"Public likes are incentivizing the wrong behavior," Wang wrote. "For example, many people feel discouraged from liking content that might be 'edgy' in fear of retaliation from trolls, or to protect their public image."

"Soon youll be able to like without worrying who might see it," he continued, while also adding that the more posts users like, the better the For You algorithm will get at recommending content.

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Wang's announcement about the removal of public likes on X left more questions than answers. X Senior Software Engineer Enrique Barragan stepped in with a post of his own in order to try and clear up exactly what is happening to likes.

According to Barragan, once all likes on X go private, users will still be able to see who liked their own posts. Also, and perhaps most important to X users, the like count or number of likes on posts and replies will still be public for all.

Basically, the change is that users won't be able to see who liked other users' posts, and there will no longer be a tab on a users' profile showcasing all the posts that user has liked.

Typically, Mashable doesn't cover every change or new feature headed to X until it's actually rolled out. X owner Elon Musk has a habit of talking about things he'd like to do but not delivering. Musk's changes to X that do end up rolling out often end with Musk backtracking and re-implementing the previous way X worked.

However, this change to X is being discussed by its director of engineering after code was discovered showing that they are ready to launch it. It's very likely that public likes will actually be removed from X soon (There's always the possibility of an eventual backtrack from Musk after the fact, of course.)

X already allowed paying X Premium subscribers to hide their likes tab on their profile. But, now it appears the platform is removing any option to share your likes to the public.

By leaving the like count, but taking away the public display of that count, it's unlikely that X is implementing this change due to studies suggesting that mental health issues are associated with social media engagement numbers. The point of removing public accounts is exactly what Wang said in his post: To remove any potential consequences for the user based on "edgy" posts they like.

Musk himself, knows about blowback from liking "edgy" posts as he's hit the like button for a number of posts by far right accounts over the past few years, and then received criticism. Now, once the change is implemented, Musk and others who like similar content will be able to do so without the public's knowledge.

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Elon Musk's X will soon remove public likes - Mashable

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Exclusive | Elon Musk's Neuralink Gets FDA Green Light for Second Patient, as First Describes His Emotional Journey  The Wall Street Journal

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Exclusive | Elon Musk's Neuralink Gets FDA Green Light for Second Patient, as First Describes His Emotional Journey - The Wall Street Journal

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Elon Musk appears to confirmed and even clarify what can be seen as a threat to Tesla shareholders: give me 25% of the company or I wont build AI and robotic products at the company, after making clear that the company is worthless without those.

In recent years, Musk has repeatedly stated that Tesla is an AI and robotics company. He has even said that Tesla is worth virtually nothing without self-driving, its main AI product.

More recently, the CEO has not only said that but has also been making moves to ensure that this is the only path for Tesla, like canceling the cheaper Tesla vehicle on the unboxed platform in favor of its upcoming Robotaxi.

Thats why it was really concerning when the CEO suggested that he is uncomfortable building AI products at Tesla unless he has 25% control over the company something he doesnt have right now partly because he decided to sell tens of billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to buy Twitter.

Musk currently owns about 13% of Teslas shares. If his 2018 compensation package goes through, he will be closer to 18% assuming that he sells some shares to pay for taxes. It means that he would need another compensation package worth tens of billions or a new share class at Tesla to give him more control.

In a new post on X, the CEO now appears to confirm his previous threat and even makes the quiproquo clearer by approving this message:

If Elon gets 25% voting power, Tesla is reincorporated in Texas, and compensation package is approved, then AI & Robotics stays within Tesla and the company can march on forward to become the largest company in the world.

By approving of this post, the CEO appears to say that these conditions are needed for him not to divert AI and robotics products away from Tesla:

This is bizarre. The CEO of a major public company is publicly threatening to move products he himself claims are critical to Teslas success if he doesnt a greater percentage of the company.

I can say move here because Elon agreed with this idiotic comment that mentions AI and robotics staying within Tesla. This is a clearer threat than what he previously made, which was about being uncomfortable building AI products at Tesla.

Wild. I dont even know how he could legally do that, but as CEO, he could do a lot of damage if he wanted to.

The guy would already have about 25% of the company with his 2018 compensation package and if he didnt sell stocks to buy Twitter. You cant have your cake and eat it too.

Speaking of the 2018 compensation package, the reason it was rescinded was because a judge found that Elon had too much undue influence on the board. The board is now proving the judges point, as they are not doing anything about the CEO making this threat. Its ridiculous.

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Elon Musk confirms his threat: give me 25% of Tesla or you don't get AI and robotics - Electrek.co

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Tesla investors are lobbying to shoot down the largest moonshot compensation plan in history.

A group including the New York City pension funds filed a notice on Monday urging others to vote against Tesla CEO Elon Musks $46 billion stock-option package at the companys shareholder meeting on June 13. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who serves as investment advisor to the citys funds with $260 billion in assets, is marshaling the charge.

According to the letter he signed, the Tesla board is overly beholden to Musk and hasnt bothered to step in when Musk ignores Tesla to focus on his roles at the Boring Company, Neuralink, SpaceX, X, and other companies. The investors complained about Musk splitting his time between the companies by focusing on one company per day. The board has yet to ensure that Tesla has a full-time CEO, investors said.

Meanwhile, hes siphoning key talent away from Tesla. More recently, Musk has begun poaching top engineers from Teslas AI and autonomy team for his new company, xAI, including Ethan Knight, who was computer vision chief at Tesla, the investor letter said.

The notice has the makings of a showdown next month between some of Teslas pension fund investors, who believe theyre overpaying for a part-time CEO, and the EV makers base of individual retail investors who see Musk as a visionary leader who must remain at Tesla at all costs. At stake is a shareholder vote to ratify Musks pay plan, now valued at about $46 billion, after it was rescinded by a judge in January. Tesla proposed the pay plan a second time in the spring, and has thrown its support behind the proposal.

Musk has rallied the retail base of support with tweets thanking them for voting and Teslas own ads promoting a vote in favor of Musks pay plan. Since April 29, Tesla has notified investors 11 separate times that Musk has tweeted about the meeting or that it has updated its website devoted to the vote, titled Protecting Your Investment and Teslas Future.

According to the dissident investors, which include Amalgamated Bank, AkademikerPension, and SOC Investment Group, Musk represents a key risk to stock values because he has pledged a portion of his 20% stake in Tesla as collateral for loans. If Musk were ever forced to sell his pledged stock, it could lead to a massive drop in stock price to the detriment of shareholders, the investor letter said.

Plus, the hands-off nature of the board means Musk treats Tesla as a coffer for himself and his other businesses, the investors argue. Musk has admitted to using Tesla engineers to work on issues at X, formerly Twitter, and defended himself by saying that no Tesla board member had stopped him from using Tesla staff for his other businesses, according to the letter. Those distractions have played a material role in Teslas underperformance relative to the S&P 500, General Motors, and Ford, investors said.

The Tesla board begs to differ, however. The website Tesla set up to support its pay-ratification vote features voting instructions and other information about the shareholder meeting, including a video with independent board chair Robyn Denholm. In it, Denholm said Musks comp plan was set up a decade ago with targets so far-fetched, so extraordinarily ambitious that skeptics called them laughingly impossible.

If he failed, Elon was entitled to receive no salary, no cash bonuses, and no equity, said Denholm. But if Elon was able to make it happen, you and all other stockholders would reap the benefits. The award worked. In half the time, Musk grew revenues from $11.8 billion to $96.8 billion, and turned profitability from $2.2 billion in the red to a $15 billion profit, Denholm said.

Indeed, one of the key reasons the vote to ratify Musks moonshot pay plan succeeded in 2018 was because the stakes were markedly different from other CEOs. The Tesla board was prepared to pay Musk $0 if he didnt hit the targets, rather than applying what is known as so-called board discretion, where corporate directors still pay CEOs who have failed to hit financial markers.

Oftentimes, boards tell investors they dont want to hold CEOs or executives responsible for economic headwinds or other factors out of their control that contributed to them missing stated financial targets or goals. Although, boards must balance the need for discretion with the need to keep executives and CEOs in their roles. Only in an extreme case would a CEO take home no pay for a long-term awardin addition to no salary, cash bonus or time-based stockbecause the risk of losing the executive and destabilizing the company would be too high.

What makes Musks pay plan complicated is that investors likely see troubles ahead for Tesla, while the board appears to be focused on paying Musk for the targets he achieved in the past. Further, the magnitude of his pay and the fact that Teslas performance has struggled this year has added to the complexity. The company announced it would lay off 10% of its staff and even slashed its summer internship program, all while the company is devoting resources to reinstating Musks moonshot. Musk himself famously ignores the norms most publicly traded company CEOs abide by and appears to actand tweetimpulsively and without conferring with the independent directors on the board, which does little to reassure investors.

In addition to ratifying his pay plan, Tesla is seeking investor approval to move from being incorporated in Delaware to Texas, a change that seems motivated by the Delaware judges ruling on Musks pay. According to the voting website: The Delaware Court has shown that it will ignore the will of our stockholders. We believe in stockholder rights. We believe Texas Courts will respect those rights.

In addition to rallying other investors to vote down Musks pay, the dissident group is asking shareholders to withhold support from Musks brother, Kimbal Musk, and former 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. Kimbal has served on the board for 20 years, and Murdoch is Musks friend. Neither is truly independent, the investors said.

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Investors clash over Elon Musk's $46 billion pay package: 'The board has yet to ensure that Tesla has a full-time CEO' - Fortune

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