Live data from Hacker News

Taking Tesla Private

tesla.com

111–120 of 290 posts

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#111
post #6

TSLA up 7% on announcement, high of $370.79 If you're a short seller, beware the "squeeze." If you're not a short seller, this article can be an amusing read: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen/short-sellers-...

[deleted]

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#112
post #16

> As a public company, we are subject to wild swings in our stock price that can be a major distraction for everyone working at Tesla, all of whom are shareholders. Being public also subjects us to the quarterly earnings cycle that puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long-term. > SpaceX is a perfect example: it is far more operatio…

Isn't SpaceX success due to the fact that most of its orders come from the US government while Tesla has to compete in the free market and isn't that successful there?

In which "free" market are you "prohibited" from selling your product directly to customers? [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_US_dealership_disputes

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#113

Can someone please ELI5 this for me? Why is a private Tesla better? As long as Elon and employees own more than 51% of the stock (do they?), can't they not just ignore the stock price swings?

You still have to publicly reveal all the quarterly numbers, estimates for next few quarters, do all the GAAP accounting etc. which puts a lot of toll on a company that's going through wild swings in capital spending and production. If they don't keep their promises, the stock will crash, so everyone goes on a production death march close to the end of the quarter under extreme stress, instead of just growing organic…

Yeah, but why not just ignore a stock price crash if you don't need to sell and believe in the long term plan?

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#115
post #35

The main question I have is about financing. If Elon owns 20% of the company now, and he doesn't intend for that to change, and he is giving the option of public shareholders to sell at $420, then who is financing this? Usually a private takeover requires a partnership with a huge private equity firm. Wouldn't releasing this without having (or identifying) that partner be premature? And wouldn't the resulting stabili…

Could be anyone from Masayoshi Son to Yuri Milner to Blackstone. Or a consortium of several.

They wouldn't have to come up with the full valuation, only need enough to buy out those who wish to sell.

Articles/Bylaws would likely give Musk control, even though he only holds 20%.

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#117
post #75
post #35

The main question I have is about financing. If Elon owns 20% of the company now, and he doesn't intend for that to change, and he is giving the option of public shareholders to sell at $420, then who is financing this? Usually a private takeover requires a partnership with a huge private equity firm. Wouldn't releasing this without having (or identifying) that partner be premature? And wouldn't the resulting stabili…

> CNBC reports that none of the Wall Street banks it contacted were aware of any transaction or had committed to funding a leveraged buyout of Tesla.

Does that prove anything though? Let's imagine a bank is working on this deal; why would they tell a reporter? It's common for companies to deny things to the press even when they're true.

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#118

Pretty enormous amount of money required. Say half of TSLA shareholders take the $420, that's approx ~$40bn required. Then there's another $10bnish of debt refinancing required, and probably many more billion for future product development and new assembly lines. I don't think Softbank could finance this, it would be well over half their entire fund. Saudi maybe - but still quite a chunk of change for them.

Or Apple, Google, maybe even Jeff from Amazon. Musk changes the rules of the game on a regular basis.

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#119

True story: I was standing on my back porch, finishing my morning coffee. It was one of those January Silicon Valley mornings where it can't quite decide whether its raining or not. Between the clouds, a rainbow appeared. From my vantage in the hills in South Fremont, the end of that rainbow sat squarely on the Tesla factory. Being the sophisticated investor that I am, I know a 'buy' signal when I see one. Here's to…

Is this supposed to be a joke?

are you so short on tesla that you can't appreciate some nice quick'n'dirty storytelling? :) whether the story is true is of no consequence.

Re: Taking Tesla Private

#120

True story: I was standing on my back porch, finishing my morning coffee. It was one of those January Silicon Valley mornings where it can't quite decide whether its raining or not. Between the clouds, a rainbow appeared. From my vantage in the hills in South Fremont, the end of that rainbow sat squarely on the Tesla factory. Being the sophisticated investor that I am, I know a 'buy' signal when I see one. Here's to…

Is this supposed to be a joke?

a better one than Elon's tweets
Post reply on HN