“Some people are irreplaceable. You know, I think Michael Jordan was irreplaceable for the Bulls. And I think Elon Musk is certainly irreplaceable for Tesla,” said Gulf Bank and Trust President Guy Williams this week when talking to WWL’s Newell Normand.
They were discussing the news from last week that a Delaware judge struck down Musk’s $56 billion pay package. According to Reuters, Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Court of Chancery said the amount is “unfathomable.”
Williams thinks things are more complicated than they appear.
At first, Musk asked that he not be paid for years, Williams explained. That means he had no signing bonus, no retention bonus and no annual salary. Instead, Musk said that he would get the huge payout if he was able to turn the value of the company from $50 billion to $600 billion in those years.
“So, when you think about it, you know, he’s a unique individual,” said Williams. “I can’t think of anyone who’s done more in, in my lifetime to change a number of different industries. So, is he worth 55 billion? Even the judge didn’t say that he wasn’t worth the money. What she didn’t like was the process.”
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In addition to his work at Tesla, Musk has pioneered a new era of space travel with Space X and continues to make media splashes with his takeover of Twitter, which he has re-named X. Williams also noted that he helped found PayPal, a resume feature that plays into the Tesla package.
“Tesla came close to going bankrupt three different times,” said Williams. “Elon appealed to his friends, people that he knew from his PayPal days. And people forget he started PayPal – he’s one of the founders of PayPal – and they came in and provided capital because Elon was there.”
Listen here to get the full scoop on this and other economic news with Williams and Normand.
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