Mathieu Shapiro weighs in on the approval of Elon Musk’s $56 bln pay package in an Interview with Reuters

Obermayer managing partner Mathieu Shapiro was quoted on Reuters on June 13, 2024, in connection with Tesla’s shareholders approval of CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package. This is the largest CEO package in U.S. corporate history underscores the sport Musk has from the company’s shareholders and passed despite opposition from some large institutional investors and proxy advisory firms.

“I think voting on the package after it was overruled by the court is a fairly unprecedented move. I don’t think this automatically invalidates what the judge did the first time around January. This will try to be used on either appeal or further proceedings with the judge. But again, that’s fairly new territory and nobody knows how that’s going to go. Now moving to Texas is a really interesting thing. The vast majority of large American companies are in Delaware and they’re in Delaware because Delaware is generally viewed as a favorable jurisdiction for companies. So, it’s kind of funny that they’ve taken this approach of ‘Delaware stopped us from doing what we want. We’re going to move to Texas.’ Texas law on corporate governance is not anywhere near as developed as Delaware’s. Nobody’s is, and most states as a kind of first instinct look to Delaware law to figure out how to handle corporate governance issues,” said Mathiew. 

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