Tesla Motors death watch

[sandorski]

This is Joe Rogan's fault.

 

[jpiniero]

It's a ploy to try to persuade California to let him reopen the Fremont plant.

 

[Craig234]

Isnt that illegal though, trashing your own stock to drive the price down and they buying it back?

The law: yes, it's illegal. But we have a government with almost no interest in enforcing such laws. How long have we been without a quorum of Federal Election Commissioners, so that there is no enforcement of election laws?

 

[darkswordsman17]

For one of the richest guys on the planet, Elon Musk is relatively cash-poor. Virtually his entire net worth is his stock in Tesla and SpaceX. Unless I'm mistaken, he's not buying TSLA shares on the open market, not now or ever. He doesn't need to, as he's awfully close to the company awarding him options worth over $1B if the stock price holds up for a little longer. Not to mention, stock price manipulation is so obviously illegal that if he did it to buy cheaper shares and the SEC proved it, he'd be banned for life as an officer at a public company. According to Forbes, he borrows heavily against his stock holdings to finance his lavish lifestyle.

My random guess: some big player (like possibly foreign government, like Saudi Arabia, or China) is angling for a big stake and offering him a lot, so they have him tank the stock and buy in. Then if he gets reprimanded he'll just go somewhere else, since I think Musk is starting to view the US as more a hindrance to his ambitions.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Isnt that illegal though, trashing your own stock to drive the price down and they buying it back?
Musk doesnt have to go to Mars, he is already in outer space.

I think he's gotten into hot water over it before actually but yeah seems to me something like that would be hard to enforce. As the CEO you should still have the right to say what you want about your own company. Though I guess when it comes to a publicly traded company there's lot of gray areas as to what you can say or do even as CEO.

Personally if I ran a company I'd never want to go public in first place, and I sometimes wonder if he feels he did a mistake going public, he just seems like the type of guy that wants to do his own thing and run it how he wants but with a public company there's lot of obligations.

 

[sdifox]

I think he's gotten into hot water over it before actually but yeah seems to me something like that would be hard to enforce. As the CEO you should still have the right to say what you want about your own company. Though I guess when it comes to a publicly traded company there's lot of gray areas as to what you can say or do even as CEO.

Personally if I ran a company I'd never want to go public in first place, and I sometimes wonder if he feels he did a mistake going public, he just seems like the type of guy that wants to do his own thing and run it how he wants but with a public company there's lot of obligations.

You kidding? How do you waste other people's money without going public?

 

[skull]

You kidding? How do you waste other people's money without going public?

He could still get private money.

 

[ponyo]

After thinking about it over the weekend, I decided to listen to Elon Musk and sold all my shares of TSLA this morning. Who am I to argue with CEO who knows his business better than I do? His tweet costed me money but that's how it goes sometimes.

 

[Ichinisan]

After thinking about it over the weekend, I decided to listen to Elon Musk and sold all my shares of TSLA this morning. Who am I to argue with CEO who knows his business better than I do? His tweet costed me money but that's how it goes sometimes.

You really sold it? Sarcasm?

 

[Kaido]

It's a ploy to try to persuade California to let him reopen the Fremont plant.

I'm calling this the Tyson Technique from now on

 

[ponyo]

You really sold it? Sarcasm?

Nope. I don't joke about stocks. I sold the trading shares. Took about $53k loss on the shares and options I bought like 1-2 days before the tweet in my trading account. The shares and options have fully recovered and then some. I would be up around $12,000 on paper if I had left it alone instead of selling and taking $53,000 actual loss. So I lost equivalent to new Model 3 Performance AWD because of the tweet and my action.

I still own full shares in my retirement accounts.

 

[Kaido]

The law: yes, it's illegal. But we have a government with almost no interest in enforcing such laws. How long have we been without a quorum of Federal Election Commissioners, so that there is no enforcement of election laws?

His last bad tweet cost $40 million:

Billionaire Elon Musk's $40 Million Tweet May Be A Blessing For Tesla After Settling Fraud Suit

Elon Musk's decision to tweet a pot joke and a speculative buyout of Tesla cost the billionaire $20 million, his chairmanship and his Trumpian Twitter habit. That could be the best thing to happen to Tesla in years.

www.forbes.com

His latest tweet set him up for a $700 million payday:

Tesla stock rise appears to qualify CEO Musk for $700 million payday

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk appeared to qualify on Monday for a $700 million payday, just three days after he said the electric car company's stock price was too high.

www.reuters.com

So even if he gets whacked again, I mean...he still makes half a billion bucks.

 

[Craig234]

Musk is attacking California's protecting people with the isolation, saying he'll move the company out of state to pressure the government - this is why we don't need billionaires, who tend to care more about their money than people's lives.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Nope. I don't joke about stocks. I sold the trading shares. Took about $53k loss on the shares and options I bought like 1-2 days before the tweet in my trading account. The shares and options have fully recovered and then some. I would be up around $12,000 on paper if I had left it alone instead of selling and taking $53,000 actual loss. So I lost equivalent to new Model 3 Performance AWD because of the tweet and my action.

I still own full shares in my retirement accounts.

Why didn't you just wait till it goes back up? It's not like it was going to stay down forever. But if you actually HAVE 53k to lose then you're obviously rich so I guess it does not matter? You make it sound like it's chump change. I don't think I've even made that much in my life time after living expenses.

 

[ultimatebob]

So, what's the odds on Elon ending up in prison by the end of the week?

 

[WelshBloke]

So, what's the odds on Elon ending up in prison by the end of the week?

I'm betting on rehab before prison!

Possibly "Hospitalised due to exhaustion and stress".

 

[repoman0]

What a frickin jerkoff. Musk is one of the main reasons I will never own a Tesla vehicle or buy their stock.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Musk isn't going to jail. America doesn't put billionaires in jail no matter what.

He's trying to bluff to get California to let him reopen, but he can't really move production right away, he needs to get other factories finished. Most likely he was already planning on those changes (especially since it seems other states like Missouri would probably full on subsidize it), and is just using this to make it look like he was forced to and blah blah blah regulations are evil blah. I bet their current site is a clusterfuck and so he was likely planning on moving most production to other site(s) before overhauling or abandoning the Fremont one anyway.

But his behavior is why I've never understood the cult of personality around him. This isn't a recent issue, and it didn't come out of nowhere or is caused just by the stress. This is just who he is. Much like Steve Jobs, he's just a fucking asshole who is always going to be an asshole.

Which, I'm not sure that boycotting based on that is gonna do much for you, as plenty of other car companies have similar if not worse assholes, so you might as well support the one with the best product for your needs/wants.

 

[repoman0]

Which, I'm not sure that boycotting based on that is gonna do much for you, as plenty of other car companies have similar if not worse assholes, so you might as well support the one with the best product for your needs/wants.

Musk is only one of my reasons, the other being that I find their vehicles incredibly dull. True about other companies being run by assholes. I’ll be keeping my 01 and 05 cars well past the point of normal financial reason both because old cars are better and so that I only give my money to the assholes’ spare parts department and friendly local indy shops.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Love my model 3, but won't touch the stock with a 10 foot pole :|.

 

[Staples]

Elon is trying really hard to appeal to the Trump voters so they will buy his cybertruck but he didn't think this through. Very few of them can afford it.

 

[ondma]

Elon is trying really hard to appeal to the Trump voters so they will buy his cybertruck but he didn't think this through. Very few of them can afford it.

Wonder if it has a good place to put the rifle rack and enough flat surfaces to mount the Confederate Flag?

 

[jpiniero]

Elon is trying really hard to appeal to the Trump voters so they will buy his cybertruck but he didn't think this through. Very few of them can afford it.

I don't know how much longer Tesla can stay shut down without going under and CA is definitely going to be the last state to reopen.

 

[OccamsToothbrush]

So, what's the odds on Elon ending up in prison by the end of the week?

I think he's just posturing, he doesn't have any real commitment. He knows his plant is going to get shut right back down, he just wants to pretend that he stood up to the government. When they show up with padlocks to close it down again he'll go away like a good little boy and start yelling from somewhere safe.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Elon is trying really hard to appeal to the Trump voters so they will buy his cybertruck but he didn't think this through. Very few of them can afford it.

I feel that demographic would not want an electric truck anyway, they want a F250 diesel with lift kit and modified exhaust.