Tesla Tries to Revive Elon Musk’s Big Payday After Court Rejected It


董事会在2018年批准了这一数百亿美元的薪酬方案，但特拉华州一家法院在今年1月份否决了这一方案。


图为马斯克。

关于马斯克(Elon Musk)薪酬的争论又开始了。 6park.com
The fight over Elon Musk’s pay is back on. 6park.com
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特斯拉(Tesla)董事会要求股东再次投票支持其首席执行官数百亿美元的薪酬方案。董事会在2018年批准了这一薪酬方案，但特拉华州一家法院在今年1月份否决了这一方案，因为该法院认为审批程序存在“严重缺陷”。 6park.com
Tesla’s board asked shareholders to again vote in favor of its CEO’s multibillion-dollar pay package. The board and shareholders approved the pay proposal in 2018, but a Delaware court in January struck it down because it said the approval process was “deeply flawed.” 6park.com
 
特斯拉董事会在周三提交的委托书公告中表示，仍然支持股东之前批准的薪酬方案，该方案的最高价值为558亿美元。这家电动汽车制造商还详细介绍了特拉华州法院的案件，以便向股东提供更多信息，说明最初薪酬方案的谈判情况以及法官在裁决中提出的批评意见。 6park.com
The board, in a preliminary proxy filing Wednesday, said it still stands behind the pay package, valued at a maximum of $55.8 billion. The EV maker also detailed the Delaware court case and included the text of the more than 50,000 word opinion to give shareholders more information about the negotiations that led to the original pay package and the criticisms raised by the judge in the ruling. 6park.com
  
不过，目前还不清楚，在提供更多信息的情况下重新提出相同的薪酬方案，是否能满足特拉华州法院和支持诉讼的股东对审批程序的担忧。 6park.com
It isn’t clear, though, whether re-proposing the same pay package with additional information will satisfy concerns about the approval process, as stated by the Delaware court and the shareholders that supported the lawsuit. The new proposal also raises questions of whether the company can propose pay for work already done.


Tesla is adjusting to falling retail demand for electric vehicles.

纽约大学(New York University)法学教授Edward Rock说：“如果他们在优秀律师协助下完成了这一重新提出程序——可能是这样的——那么我认为，如果股东真的投票赞成，则法院很有可能不会提出质疑。” 6park.com
“If they’ve gone through the redo process with good counsel—it’s likely that they did—then I think there’s a very strong likelihood that if shareholders in fact vote in favor of this that the court will not second guess it,” said Edward Rock, a law professor at New York University. 6park.com
    
教授公司法和公司治理课程的Rock说，特斯拉这一次试图在该公司如何向马斯克支付薪酬的问题上提高透明度。Rock说，让上述特拉华州法院有意见的并不是薪酬的数额，而是相关薪酬方案如何在未向股东充分披露信息的情况下被授予。 6park.com
Rock, who teaches corporate law and corporate governance, said Tesla this time is trying to be more transparent about how it would pay Musk. Rock said the Delaware court took issue not with the amount of pay but with how the pay package was awarded without adequate disclosures to shareholders. 6park.com
   
除了马斯克的薪酬方案外，特斯拉还在寻求将公司注册地从特拉华州迁至公司总部所在地得州。法律专家说，这种迁移不会影响薪酬一案，因为该案涉及的是特斯拉在特拉华州注册成立期间所采取的行动。 6park.com
In addition to the Musk pay package, Tesla wants voters to approve the company’s proposal to move its incorporation from Delaware to Texas, where the company is headquartered. Such a relocation wouldn’t affect the pay case because it relates to actions taken while Tesla was incorporated in Delaware, legal experts say.

加码

在特斯拉股价下滑、公司市值损失数千亿美元之际，这些提案提高了对马斯克薪酬问题的关注。随着电动汽车市场的降温，这家汽车制造商的增长正在放缓。该公司正在裁员10%，以应对需求下降局面。 6park.com
The proposals up the ante over Musk’s pay at a time when Tesla’s shares are sliding and the company has lost billions of dollars in market cap. The automaker’s growth is slowing as the market for electric vehicles cools. And the company is in the midst of cutting 10% of its staff as it recalibrates to a lower demand for its cars. 6park.com
   
特斯拉股价周三下跌1.1%。今年以来该股累计下跌约37%。 6park.com
Tesla shares dropped 1.1% on Wednesday. The stock is down about 37% so far this year. 6park.com
   
此次投票可能会重新掀起对两件事的质疑声浪，一是马斯克与特斯拉董事会之间的密切关系，二是其计划如何向这位CEO支付薪酬；马斯克是一位拥有一系列其他商业利益的连续创业者。除了2018年的薪酬方案，马斯克一直在寻求获得特斯拉更多的投票权。前述公告显示，截至3月31日，这位亿万富翁拥有特斯拉约21%的股份，包括未行使的期权。他是特斯拉这家全球市值最高汽车制造商的最大股东。 6park.com
The vote is likely to reignite questions over Musk’s close ties to the Tesla board and how it plans to compensate its chief executive, a serial entrepreneur with an array of other business interests. Separate from the 2018 pay package, Musk has been seeking more voting power in Tesla. The billionaire owned about 21% of Tesla, including unexercised options, as of March 31, according to the filing. He is the largest shareholder in Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker.


特斯拉董事长Robyn Denholm呼吁股东投票批准马斯克的薪酬方案。

在定于6月召开的年度股东大会之前，特斯拉已建议股东批准2018年出炉的马斯克薪酬方案；该方案由10年的股票期权授予构成，基于公司市值达到至少6,500亿美元并达成各种收入和利润目标，分为12个解锁档。该公司于2022年越过了这些门槛中的最后一道。 6park.com
Ahead of its annual shareholder meeting in June, Tesla has proposed that shareholders ratify Musk’s 2018 pay package, which consisted of a 10-year grant of stock options with 12 vesting tranches based on the company reaching a market capitalization of at least $650 billion while also hitting various revenue and profit targets. The company cleared the last of those hurdles in 2022. 6park.com
该公司在公告中表示，过往对马斯克的股权奖励（最近一次便是引发争议的2018年期权奖励方案）自2020年以来已增加超过490亿美元的价值，其中包括2023年期间的14亿美元，这是基于年底或解锁日的情况来衡量。 6park.com
Musk’s past equity awards—the most recent of which is the contested 2018 option grant—have gained more than $49 billion in value since 2020, including $1.4 billion during 2023, measuring through year-end or the date of vesting, the company said in its filing. 6park.com
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在敦促股东批准2018年股权奖励方案的同时，特斯拉指出，这或可减少代表Richard Tornetta的律师的最终律师费。Tornetta以特斯拉股东的身份提起的诉讼质疑了该薪酬方案。 6park.com
In urging shareholders to approve the 2018 equity award, Tesla argues it could undercut the eventual legal fees for the attorneys representing Richard Tornetta, the shareholder whose lawsuit put that pay in question. 6park.com
   
Tornetta的律师要求获得报酬，至少部分理由是，通过争取否决该薪酬方案，他们帮助特斯拉节省了本应支付给马斯克的薪酬。特斯拉表示，如果股东们批准了这一方案，那么节省薪酬的好处就不复存在了，律师们也就没有理由要求高额律师费了。 6park.com
Tornetta’s attorneys are seeking payment at least in part on the grounds that by fighting to reject the pay package, they helped Tesla save compensation it would have otherwise been obligated to give Musk. If shareholders approve that package, the benefit vanishes, and with it the lawyers’ argument for high fees, Tesla said. 6park.com
   
鼓手Tornetta的律师周三暂未回复置评请求。特斯拉称，Tornetta在提起诉讼时拥有九股股份。 6park.com
A lawyer for Tornetta, a drummer who Tesla said owned nine shares at the time he filed the lawsuit, didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday. 6park.com
   
特斯拉周三表示，对薪酬方案投赞成票“可能避免围绕公司最重要员工的长期不确定性”。根据该方案，马斯克在行使期权后必须持有股票五年，以激励他继续为特斯拉努力工作。 6park.com
Tesla said Wednesday that a vote in favor of the pay package “could avoid a prolonged period of uncertainty regarding the company’s most important employee.” Under the proposal, Musk has to hold on to the stock for five years after the options are exercised, incentivizing him to keep working hard on Tesla’s behalf. 6park.com
   
特拉华州案件的法官Kathaleen McCormick批评了确保马斯克薪酬获得批准的程序，理由是马斯克与董事会成员“关系广泛”，她同意撤销当时价值最高达558亿美元的方案。 6park.com
The judge in the Delaware case, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, criticized the process for securing approval of Musk’s compensation, citing Musk’s “extensive ties” with board members and agreed to rescind the package, which at the time was valued at a maximum of $55.8 billion.


2022年，马斯克在大法官Kathaleen McCormick面前作证的法庭素描。

特拉华州衡平法院负责审理该薪酬案，其发言人周三不予置评。特斯拉表示，计划对特拉华州法院的裁决提出上诉。 6park.com
A spokesman for Delaware’s chancery court, where the pay-package case was heard, declined to comment Wednesday. Tesla said it plans to appeal the Delaware ruling. 6park.com
  
特斯拉董事长Robyn Denholm在周三发布的一封信中呼吁股东投票批准马斯克的薪酬方案。 6park.com
Robyn Denholm, the chair of the board, asked shareholders in a letter released Wednesday to vote to approve Musk’s pay package. 6park.com
  
“由于特拉华州法院在裁决中批评了你们的决定，埃隆在过去六年中为特斯拉所做的任何工作都没有得到报酬，而这些工作帮助特斯拉实现了显著增长并创造了股东价值，”她写道：“这让我们和已经向我们反映了意见的许多股东感到从根本上是不公平的，也不符合投票赞成的股东的意愿。” 6park.com
“Because the Delaware Court second-guessed your decision, Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years that has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value,” she wrote. “That strikes us—and the many stockholders from whom we already have heard—as fundamentally unfair, and inconsistent with the will of the stockholders who voted for it.”

特别委员会

特斯拉在提交的委托书中包含了一份董事会特别委员会的报告，其中列出了特拉华州法院裁决的细节与薪酬方案的对比，以便股东可以利用这些细节做出明智的决定。 6park.com
In the proxy filing, Tesla included a report from a special committee of the board, which laid out the details of the Delaware court ruling compared with the pay package, making the case that shareholders can use the details to make an informed decision. 6park.com
  
特别董事会委员会的报告称：“我们建议只需将2018年的原始方案重新进行股东投票，同时对所采取的程序和当时考虑的潜在利益冲突进行广泛的信息披露。” 6park.com
“We suggest simply subjecting the original 2018 package to a new shareholder vote, accompanied by expansive disclosure as to the process undertaken and the potential conflicts of interest that were considered at the time,” the special board committee’s report said. 6park.com
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特斯拉表示，特别委员会中只有一名特斯拉董事会成员： Kathleen Wilson-Thompson。她有一个顾问团队。纽约大学法学教授Rock说，委员会成员中的董事会成员少于三名是不正常的。 6park.com
Tesla said there is only one Tesla board member on the special committee: Kathleen Wilson-Thompson. She has a team of advisers. Rock, the NYU law professor, said it is unusual for committees to have fewer than three board members. 6park.com
   
特斯拉表示，许多股东不同意法院的判决，该公司前10大股东中有四家股东要求与董事长会面讨论这一问题。 6park.com
Tesla said many of its stockholders disagreed with the court’s decision and four of its 10 largest shareholders asked for a meeting with the board chair to discuss the issue. 6park.com
  
法院通常会尊重董事会的薪酬决定，法官很少会否决薪酬协议。McCormick说，马斯克和特斯拉无法证明股东已充分了解马斯克的薪酬方案。 6park.com
Courts typically give boards deference on pay decisions, and it is rare for a judge to strike down a compensation deal. McCormick said Musk and Tesla couldn’t prove that shareholders were sufficiently informed about the deal. 6park.com
  
特斯拉称，该公司最大的投资者之一普徕仕(T. Rowe Price)已致函特斯拉董事长，表示希望股东再次就马斯克的薪酬方案进行投票。 6park.com
Tesla said T. Rowe Price, one of the company’s largest investors, wrote a letter to the board chair saying it wanted shareholders to vote on Musk’s package again. 6park.com
  
普徕仕周三称，该公司是特斯拉的长期投资者。这家共同基金公司表示：“我们认为，2018年的计划与长期投资者的利益保持了高度一致，随后还有一段很不错的、对价值创造进行验证的阶段。” 6park.com
T. Rowe Price said Wednesday it is a longstanding investor in Tesla. “We believe the 2018 plan demonstrated strong alignment with the interests of long-term investors, and it was followed by an impressive, validating period of value creation,” the mutual-fund firm said.

其他要求

马斯克呼吁股东批准将公司注册地从特拉华州改到得克萨斯州。 6park.com
Musk is asking shareholders to approve the company’s corporate conversion to Texas from Delaware. 6park.com
  
“2024年是特斯拉应该搬到得克萨斯州的年份，”上述文件称。“我们收到数以千计特斯拉大小股东的来信，他们都支持特斯拉注册地迁往得克萨斯州。我们听到了你们的声音，现在我们正式请求你们郑重地发表意见：并投票支持将特斯拉迁往我们的商业注册地得克萨斯州。” 6park.com
“2024 is the year that Tesla should move home to Texas,” according to the filing. “We have received letters from thousands of Tesla stockholders—large and small—supporting a move home to Texas. We have heard you, and now we formally ask that you speak in a meaningful way: and vote in favor of taking Tesla to our business home of Texas.”


特斯拉位于得克萨斯州奥斯汀的超级工厂。

今年2月，马斯克要求特斯拉决定是否将公司注册在得克萨斯州。他当时在X上发帖说：“永远不要把你的公司注册在特拉华州。 ” 6park.com
In February, Musk asked Tesla to decide whether to incorporate in Texas. He said in a post on X at the time, “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.” 6park.com
   
长期以来，企业之所以在特拉华州注册是看中该州的公司法，认为该法能平衡投资者和企业的其他利益。尽管如此，一些公司已对近年来股东诉讼的增加表达了不满。马斯克在社交媒体上发起了一项民意调查，询问特斯拉是否应该换州注册。 6park.com
Companies have long sought Delaware for corporate law seen as balancing investor and other company interests. Still, some companies have complained about the increase in shareholder litigation filed in recent years. Musk ran a poll on social media asking if the company should move states for its incorporation. 6park.com
  
特斯拉还要求股东重新选举两名董事Kimbal Musk和詹姆斯．默多克(James Murdoch)进入董事会。该公司的董事会实行分期改选模式，每一期董事的任期为三年。 6park.com
Tesla also asked shareholders to re-elect two directors, Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch, to the board. The company’s directors serve staggered three-year terms.