💰️ Elon Musk’s $56B pay package approved

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TOP STORY
💰️ Elon Musk’s $56B pay package approved

Over the past few months, Tesla shareholders, investors, and Elon Musk have been holding their breath, waiting to see if the billionaire CEO would be getting $56 billion richer.

Yes, Billion, with a capital B.

Yesterday, Tesla shareholders finally approved this historic compensation package, with Musk rejoicing, “I just want to start off by saying hot damn! I love you guys.”

But not so fast—he may not even be getting the money at all when it’s all said and done.

To understand how this pay package got so big and what happens next, we gotta take a step back to see how we got here in the first place:

The ginormous compensation plan was initially approved in 2018, contingent upon Tesla reaching specific financial and operational goals.

A couple of examples:

• Tesla had to hit market cap milestones from $100 billion to $650 billion in $50 billion increments.

• Tesla must reach revenue milestones starting at $20 billion annually, with higher targets later.

Depending on whether Tesla hits these targets, Musk would then get stock options in twelve parts. 

Important to note is that the compensation package was entirely in Tesla stock options, with a strike price set at the time of approval.

This means that as Tesla’s stock price rose, the value of Musk’s compensation package would increase.

If all goals were met, Musk could earn up to $56 billion in Tesla stock options.

Spoiler alert: Musk successfully achieved these milestones, with Tesla reaching a peak market cap of approximately $1.1 trillion and generating around $96 billion in revenue for 2023. 

However, earlier this year, the package was brought to court after major shareholders complained that they “didn’t get the full picture” of what they were signing up for.

A judge in Delaware, where the company was incorporated, soon ordered the company to rescind the package, finding it “unfathomable” and improperly granted by the board.

Devastating news for the $200B man—how will he be able to put food on the table?

Don’t worry, the board and Musk were determined; they didn’t give up. 

After the decision, for months, many Tesla board members tried to convince shareholders to approve the pay package, which included their not-so-subtle X ads.

But hey, it worked; the package was approved yesterday.

However, before breaking out the dollar store champagne, the recent shareholder vote to approve the pay package does NOT mean Musk gets the money now.

Instead, the shareholder approval reinforces that both Tesla’s board and its shareholders have confidence in Musk’s leadership.

It may not seem like it, but this vote of confidence (literally) means a lot.

If/when Musk appeals the Delaware court decision that stripped his paycheck, a new judge will factor in whether shareholders think he should get his pay package back.

Better set your calendars for that one.

ENTERTAINMENT
📺️ The Sidemen preview the future of Reality TV

Earlier this week, The infamous Sidemen group wrapped up their debut reality show, ‘Inside.’

Over seven days, contestants, mainly content creators, competed for a massive £1 million prize.

Here were the crazy stipulations:

• Contestants are locked inside the same house for an entire week.

• They have to complete daily tasks ranging from rating each other to enduring creepy crawlies like rats, spiders, and snakes.

• Includes getting faces whacked with tortillas and a game of dodgeball with table tennis vibes.

• Prize money decreases for failed challenges; contestants can spend prize money on luxuries (e.g., $100 per minute for hot water, $500 for a soda).

• Contestants who fail to complete challenges are eliminated, with the remaining battling it out for the final prize.

It sounds pretty entertaining and stupid, the mix you’d expect from a reality TV show made by YouTubers.

But regardless of how you feel about these boys, the show did really, really well.

• 7 episodes

• 4+ million views for the first episode in the first 24 hours

• ~44M total views for the series on YouTube in about a week

Those sky-high numbers are routine for the Sidemen YouTube channel and their two affiliate channels, which boast a combined 29 million subscribers.

Additionally, each Sidemen member has a substantial individual following, with each exceeding millions of subscribers. 

KSI leads the pack with 24M subscribers on his own, followed by Miniminter with 10.4M.

But the implications of the series’ success go much further.

MrBeast, the newly crowned King of YouTube, has built a media empire off the same type of spontaneous, minimally scripted format of reality TV.

He has over 281M subscribers, and each of his videos consistently fetches 100s of millions of views.

That’s why Amazon Prime Video reportedly handed MrBeast a $100 million contract to host “the biggest game show ever,” including 1,000 contestants and a $5 million prize.

Amazon, as well as other streamers, understand that the future of reality may very well be in the hands of creators.

CREATOR ECONOMY
🧼 Jake Paul is launching his own men's personal care brand

Yup, we’re dead serious. The fittingly named “W” brand features a range of body care products to be sold at Walmart.

The initial launch, which happened earlier this week, includes deodorant, body wash, and body spray.

More essential products like 2-in-1 shampoo and hair pomade are set to be released in the coming months.

But won’t it be expensive? Nah, don’t worry about price—everything is available for under $10 nationwide at Walmart or on Walmart.com. Also coming to Amazon later this summer.

But why is Jake Paul doing this?

Did he get bored training for the Mike Tyson fight?

No, Paul’s goal is to provide affordable products that boost confidence and smell great, noting that men's grooming is a "super underserved market" that he can disrupt with superior products.

Now, we’re not quite sure if Paul’s product will be "superior" to what’s currently out there, but what I can say for certain is that the CPG (consumer packaged goods) market for content creators has gotten hotter than fish grease.

• Big brother Logan Paul’s “Prime Hydration” passed $1.2 billion in sales for 2023.

• Mr. Beast’s “Feastables” sold over 1 million “Feastables” chocolate bars in just 72 hours after launching, and more and more creators are launching products as soon as they hit a certain follower threshold.

There has never been a better time for people with no experience in a field to start selling a product nobody really needs.

No, but in all honestly, it’s always nice to see creators getting that bag.