Tomlinson: Cult or corporation? Tesla investors must decide.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, left, sits with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Elon Musk, billionaire and chief executive officer of Tesla.

A Tesla Cybertruck.

A Tesla vehicle is charged at a Tesla charging station.

Shareholders will soon reveal whether Tesla is a corporation or a cult by voting on whether to make Elon Musk the highest-paid part-time CEO in history despite the stock price collapsing 40%, the company laying off 14,000 workers and a judge calling his hand-picked board’s decision-making deeply flawed.

Musk and Tesla’s directors are spending millions to convince shareholders to give up $56 billion after the company missed sales targets and failed to launch the new Model 2 on time, if at all. Analysts at Houston investment bank TPH Energy Research expect the stock to drop another 17% before bottoming out.

Tesla’s biggest retail shareholder, Leo Koguan, told the energy transition website Electrek that he would vote against the deal in June. “Tesla is a family business masquerading as a public company,” he explained.

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Koguan’s 27 million shares are not enough to block the proposal or an additional vote on reincorporating Tesla in Texas, out of reach........

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