I don’t follow this shit. Eh, maybe I should. So what’s up with buying back your own company’s shares and going private? Is that not allowed? Is it a sign of fraud, doubling dealing, shorting the stock price, screwing over investors? I don’t get it. Anyone care to explain, because this article sure didn’t.
I THINK the concern is that if there was no intent to actually sell, by naming a price well above the current level, Musk was just hoping to run up the stock price…perhaps selling off some of his own stake. Manipulating the price is frowned upon.
He said that he has lined up financing to go private; and that is most likely a lie.
That then goosed the Stock price higher. Which if there isn’t true financing to take this private, is Stock manipulation.
Which to me is another indication of what is Elon pretty much is: a Con man.
Tesla is a money losing enterprise with an unlikely proposition of ever being profitable. So he is trying desperately to make it look like it will.
He wasn’t selling his own stock, he’s trying to bend over the short sellers that have been attacking TESLA for months now. By driving up the share price, the short sellers receive a margin call, requiring them to deposit more money in their brokerage accounts or else buy back the stock at a loss. Market manipulation-likely. But not at his own gain, at the misery and losses of the short sellers trying to drive their share price down.
Elon done f’ed up. Never make announcements that can move the stock price until the deal is done and the lawyers have approved it.
That’s C-Suite 101.
If he had sold ANY of his own stock, they’d have already filed an SEC 4K detailing the sale by an “insider”.
I call bullshit on your supposition based on nothing that Musk is not in the process of lining up financing for taking Tesla private. Since that tweet by Musk is was revealed that the multi trillion dollar Saudi investment fund has been in negotiations for months with Tesla execs. You sound like you may be a short or working for their propaganda operation. Don’t expect a bonus once Tesla is privatized because your short financiers won’t have a dime to share with you.
This is a forward-looking statement that appears not to be factual. But the sanctions are not clear to me (IANAL). If neither Musk nor anyone connected to him did any selling, then the only damages would be suffered by people who bought or sold during the period in question, which is likely a small group compared to the total amount of money flying around.
The SEC could definitely come after him, but other than forcing him out of management and/or fining him, IDK.
He sure does.
Best answer yet.
Not even close.
Quite an amazing feat to convince people to buy your company for 100s of Billions of dollars when you can’t make any profit; constantly lie about production timetables; have multiple insiders citing numerous problems with quality control on both the cars and the batteries; promises not to need to go back to for more capital.
In other words, Elon has a history with the truth.
I don’t think the Saudi’s are that stupid. So we will see who is right.
Alternative view:
Elon Musk has enough money to throw his old car into space. He doesn’t need money. He is an odd sort of entrepreneur who is willing (and able) to actually take a long view on the “profitability” of a new company, and a broad view of what profitability means. Return on investment does not always have to be short term, or even medium term financial return. Electric cars are good. Enormous arrays of efficient batteries are good. Solar roof tiles are good. Reusable booster rockets are good (and they are not created by “con men”). Musk is bringing these things into being. He probably seems very weird to a lot of people. Right now, there are a lot of people who are trying to bring Tesla down for their own short term gain. Musk may have let his anger at those people get the better of him, and prematurely announced a deal that’s not yet done. The SEC will sort out what he did.
This is the comment to notice. The story revolves around the short sellers who are trying to damage Tesla. If they succeed, they make a huge amount of money for the sake of a gimmick.
If you take global warming seriously, if you take clean technology seriously, here’s one of the sites covering the story:
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/15/saudi-arabia-tesla-perfect-or-disastrous-bedfellows/
Lots of people on the right are playing cute games with Tesla while cheering on the shorters.
You may have misread Musk’s tweet. It says “Funding secured.”
Even if Musk is now “in the process of lining up financing for taking Tesla private” – which might or might not succeed – that doesn’t support the claim in the tweet.
The SEC probably wants to see evidence that funding was actually secured when he made the tweet and that he wasn’t just making a bogus claim that could (and did, I believe) move the stock price.
It would not surprise me if this writer turns out to be another shorter playing games.
It terrifies Detroit and the oil barons that affordable electric cars are here and more are coming. If we are to avoid global warming, electric cars are essential.
For the record, it is legal for Tesla to go private.
Another matter is that Tesla is selling lots and lots of electric cars. They are growing very rapidly and the auto companies around the world who have been resisting electric cars are now terrified.
Similar to Putin’s method of dealing with upstart entrepreneurs & non-aligned businessmen - - a case will be made in order to crush Musk … and then others will follow …
I don’t know. Your supposition isn’t really a good done. One perfect case in point? Amazon. How many $100s of billions have been invested there? With plenty of returns to show for it, and yet… no profit…? For a couple of decades.
Saying Musk “constantly lies” is hogwash. I look to results. What do I see? Results! A space program that’s actually working and advancing the tech. Solar roofing tiles (a rather serious breakthrough combining high efficiency tiles and actual aesthetics… attractive solar panels… novel concept!), battery wall to store the excess those panels generate, and cars that are head and shoulders above any of the Old Guard’s internal combustion machines…
I’ve had the pleasure of both driving and being a passenger in a number of Tesla vehicles, and they are simply fantastic cars. Although production schedules are notorious for slipping, they still get them out. You can’t deny the FACT that Tesla Motors is at the pinnacle of safety and engineering for the “automobile”. They beat EVERYONE hands down. Those aren’t lies. They are simple facts.
Part of Tesla’s struggle is that they face challenges no-one else does. Their patents are in many cases groundbreaking, paradigm changing. Musk made those public domain so the industry could thrive. Not to enrich himself so much as to save our sorry asses from ourselves and our addiction to Oil.
And yet, have you seen a Tesla Showroom in every city? No. Because the big three and their lobbyists have disallowed them at every turn. So Musk has to thread a needle between gaining access to markets, earning enough to grow a car company, and staying out ahead of the market with innovation.
Once you’ve take a ride in a fully loaded Tesla Model S… you’ll never take anyone like you seriously again. It flies in direct opposition to everything you’re saying, and to the negative light you are painting him in. He’s a quirky, mildly eccentric genius of a human. I’m thankful for him existing, potentially pulling us kicking and screaming toward a more sane future.
/rant 
As others have pointed out, the problem is not that Tesla might be going private. The problem is Musk’s public statements about that move. There are things a person in his position is not allowed to say unless certain conditions are met. Violating those rules can – and should – land a person in a lot of hot water.
Well, here’s hoping he hasn’t landed himself in hot water. I admire him like few others in the world. You know, like Steve Jobs, he isn’t particularly likable, or even believable sometimes, but you can’t help but judge the man on his vision and results… because those tend to be pretty groundbreaking it’s easier to forgive his faults and errors.
Maybe that’s just me… certainly just one opinion!
But your point is certainly a valid one. Here’s hoping he played it perfectly, and is able to take Tesla private and well-funded. Too bad it’s the Saudis though. I’m not feeling very happy about that kingdom at the moment.