20 votes

Elon Musk accused by SEC of misleading investors in August tweet

12 comments

  1. [5]
    unknown user
    Link
    Hopefully. Let sane people take over Tesla. It was the best thing in the recent decades of carmaking history, and maybe indeed required a crazy man like Musk to start it because it's such a big...

    The suit seeks an order barring Musk from serving as an officer or director of a public company, a request often made in SEC lawsuits.

    Hopefully. Let sane people take over Tesla. It was the best thing in the recent decades of carmaking history, and maybe indeed required a crazy man like Musk to start it because it's such a big move forward, but he did his part and then more. Now, he's, as a comment on HN on this article says, the biggest obstacle to Tesla's advancement. He's also a public sociopath.

    7 votes
    1. [3]
      munche
      Link Parent
      Quick point that Musk didn't actually start the company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Original_roadster_and_private_funding He did a great job in marketing it and turning it into a...
      • Exemplary

      Quick point that Musk didn't actually start the company:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Original_roadster_and_private_funding

      Eberhard and Tarpenning conceived and founded the company, also funding the company until the Series A round.[5] Musk led the Series A in February 2004, joining the board of directors as its chairman as well as in operational roles. Musk was then the controlling investor in Tesla, providing the large majority of the US$7.5 million round with personal funds. Co-founder Martin Eberhard was the original CEO of Tesla until he was asked to resign in August 2007 by the board of directors.[5][28] Eberhard then took the title of "President of Technology" before ultimately leaving the company in January 2008 along with co-founder Marc Tarpenning, who served as the CFO and subsequently the Vice President of Electrical Engineering of the company until 2008. [5][28] Eberhard later filed suit against the company allegedly that current CEO Elon Musk sought to "rewrite history".[2]

      He did a great job in marketing it and turning it into a brand that has a huge amount of casual cool with all sorts of consumers. Now they need an adult in charge.

      11 votes
      1. unknown user
        Link Parent
        Then he's just a rich media personality that invested in the right guys, and implanted himself as the CEO and the face of the company. He's way worse a person than even I thought he was.

        Then he's just a rich media personality that invested in the right guys, and implanted himself as the CEO and the face of the company. He's way worse a person than even I thought he was.

        5 votes
      2. RapidEyeMovement
        Link Parent
        Thank you! It is a often missed point that Musk did not start TSLA and that he forced out the people who founded the company.

        Thank you! It is a often missed point that Musk did not start TSLA and that he forced out the people who founded the company.

        3 votes
    2. Amarok
      Link Parent
      The man really needs to take six months off and not work at all during his sabbatical. Given his personality and past that seems about as likely as him flying to the moon under his own power,...

      The man really needs to take six months off and not work at all during his sabbatical. Given his personality and past that seems about as likely as him flying to the moon under his own power, though. If you spend every waking moment for years fixated on work, it is going to take a serious toll on your mental health. That's just how the brain works. The only cure is to think about something else and give that silly organ a little time to reset and decompress.

      3 votes
  2. [2]
    Personman
    Link
    Absolutely cannot wait for this cartoonishly evil asshole to get the boot. Also apparently a significant part of it is because of his idiotic weed joke, which is hilarious...

    Absolutely cannot wait for this cartoonishly evil asshole to get the boot.

    Also apparently a significant part of it is because of his idiotic weed joke, which is hilarious https://twitter.com/ImitationJordan/status/1045409293904891905

    3 votes
    1. unknown user
      Link Parent
      I liken Musk to Di Caprio's role in The Wolf of Wall Street. So many Tesla fanboys (which surprisingly exist, people love being fans apparently) out there don't understand that this sort of idiocy...

      I liken Musk to Di Caprio's role in The Wolf of Wall Street. So many Tesla fanboys (which surprisingly exist, people love being fans apparently) out there don't understand that this sort of idiocy affects real people from workers to small investors on big scale. People loose money and jobs for the quirky pleasures of a selfish idiot.

      3 votes
  3. [4]
    Neverland
    Link
    TSLA is down 10% today.. there is going to be a buy opportunity here coming up it would seem, no? Anyone have any guesses on what will happen?

    TSLA is down 10% today.. there is going to be a buy opportunity here coming up it would seem, no? Anyone have any guesses on what will happen?

    1. [3]
      unknown user
      Link Parent
      Depends on your perspective. "Buy on the dip" only works if you believe it's going to go up beyond this point. If you consider that so much of TSLA's price is built on expectations of future...

      Depends on your perspective. "Buy on the dip" only works if you believe it's going to go up beyond this point. If you consider that so much of TSLA's price is built on expectations of future growth, and you consider that probably only Musk can sail the ship in the right direction, then TSLA could be a terrible buy.

      And even then, if the stock does climb, but performs poorly relative to other stocks, why not invest elsewhere? NASDAQ is a big place and TSLA is just one of many.

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        unknown user
        Link Parent
        I don't know much about investing, but why would Tesla depend on Musk at this time? Tesla is a sensation on its own, widely-known and solid product (apart from the "autopilot" thing). Why wouldn't...

        I don't know much about investing, but why would Tesla depend on Musk at this time? Tesla is a sensation on its own, widely-known and solid product (apart from the "autopilot" thing). Why wouldn't its value go up post-Musk?

        1 vote
        1. JuniperMonkeys
          Link Parent
          For all of Musk's bluster, Tesla is in pretty bad shape on their own merits (uh, I guess demerits). They have $2.2b in cash, $950m of debt coming due in early 2019, and a significant amount...

          For all of Musk's bluster, Tesla is in pretty bad shape on their own merits (uh, I guess demerits). They have $2.2b in cash, $950m of debt coming due in early 2019, and a significant amount (something like 37%) of the cash they do have is courtesy of refundable deposits for cars they can't make profitably ($35k Model 3s). They lose about $750m per quarter.

          They've always been a cash-burny business, and the numbers above are absolutely not terminal. But, to go hand-in-hand with their situation, they're really overvalued for how many cars they actually sell (as @lukeify said). Even if they got a sane CEO and got the losses down to a self-sustainable level, it's possible that without the Musk musk permeating the halls they would revert to a more realistic valuation.

          5 votes
  4. Shahriar
    Link
    Good ol' Musky.

    In the lawsuit and at the news conference, the SEC officers went to great lengths to spell out the Tesla CEO’s carelessness and his erratic behavior -- from threatening to “burn” short-sellers who targeted Tesla stock to seeking to amuse his girlfriend, the pop singer Grimes, by weaving in a “marijuana culture” reference to his go-private bid. (He set a buyout price of $420, a number he landed on in part because it’s code for marijuana consumption.)

    Good ol' Musky.

    1 vote