261–270 of 290 posts
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Correct. Also a large part of the reason why we still don't have universal speed limits on Autobahnen.
That‘s simply wrong. We don‘t have a speed limit because the majority of the people would hate that. On the other hand, German carmakers have a longstanding gentleman‘s agreement to electronically limit their cars to 250 km/h. Seems they can live with limits.
I don't like the guy (and it's obvious from my comments), but this move is brilliant on so many levels. The short sellers just got taken to the cleaners, badly . By taking the company private, he's under less public and regulatory scrutiny. It's probably easier for him to raise money privately, and there seems to be sufficient interest. Tesla's employees, who are probably pretty much worn out, got a nice pay day. And…
Why don't you like the guy? I am always surprised that people could have a net negative opinion on someone who is trying hard to push technology forward in multiple directions. I agree this move is brilliant, and could be a huge competitive advantage when self-driving bad press liability kicks in.
Maybe I've just become weary of him, but it feels like his personality has devolved into something so narcissistic that his primary motive is no longer the technological advancement itself, but to be worshiped as a Messiah on Twitter for it.
Case in point: at a time at which he claimed he had so much work at Tesla that he slept in his office at the factory, he suddenly needed to be at the front of the Thai cave rescue, he needed to pick a pointless fight with one of the rescue divers, he needed to fix the water in Flint, Michigan, etc., and all of this naturally on Twitter.
>I am always surprised that people could have a net negative opinion on someone who is trying hard to push technology forward in multiple directions
What he has done with SpaceX is just... incredible. There are no other words for it.
However, to me, it seems as if he's taken his success at SpaceX as a life lesson to mean "If I attempt something very hard, and if everybody is telling me I'm doing it wrong, I'm actually doing it right". I think he actually considers himself infallible now. At least, we know how he reacts to criticism, especially from within his own ranks.
In effect, it's not moving technology forward. It's subjecting technological progress to a single person's whim, and results in the technological mess that we have seen at the Fremont plant, for a technological problem that others have already solved a long time ago.
Case in point: how long do you think it would take VW to build a plant that can build 10.000 cars a week?
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> 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.
So there's the real story. Who is this financer (or group) with ~40 billion in capital that is willing to bet long on Tesla? That's really interesting to me, if Musk is being truthful here.
That could be Softbank. They already have $200 billion in investment lined up.
And apparently they are to some extent disillusioned investing in internet companies.
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I can't imagine anything more distracting than a big number that goes up and down minute to minute changing the value of the equity they hold
I feel like it mainly does that because Musk fails to set realistic expectations and then goes on tantrums whenever someone is negative about the outlook. I admire his ambition and he is great for Tesla in general but as far as managing a public company his approach hasn't been very successful.
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> Tesla has also received a substantial amount of government supporting, including EV rebates for buyers of its cars. All automakers are eligible for this support...if they build electric cars. Ford and Tesla are the only automakers to have never declared bankruptcy. These are tiresome arguments that hold no water.
Which is why I edited my comment to provide more detail. It's not just the EV rebates, Tesla has also received substantial government handouts; on the order of billions .
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…
This would have a side-effect of making all the short-sellers lose, which would be quite satisfactory to Musk. Until Tesla's economics become obvious to all in the market, this is probably the best decision; this allows them to be more focused on the long run.
Part of me wonders if it isn't a side-effect, but the goal: put the squeezin' on the shorts. But, man, if that tin-foil hat theory is true, Musk better have someone in the wings at least pretending to want to finance this lest the SEC come a-knockin'. Normally, I'd just pass that off as "haha, wouldn't that be funny!", but given some of Musk's tweets lately, there's still a little part of me that entertains the idea…
Not directly related to the thread, but I'm surpised by the extreme anti-short seller sentiment? Why is it important that they suffer? Short-selling is what makes almost zero expense mutual/index funds available to mom n' pop investors. Fidelity are about to offer ZERO TER funds on the basis that short-sellers pay heavily to borrow stock from them. It seems analogous to expressing hatred for umbrella sellers because…
Now, the stock is the product, not the company. It's become a game in itself. It adds nothing to the real world outside of finance.
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That‘s simply wrong. We don‘t have a speed limit because the majority of the people would hate that. On the other hand, German carmakers have a longstanding gentleman‘s agreement to electronically limit their cars to 250 km/h. Seems they can live with limits.
Wow 250kmh. May as well be limited to C like the rest of the world's auto makers at that speed
This feels like a rushed announcement. First you throw out a tweet, later in the day you halt trading, then you make an announcement that you're "considering" something major, but that you haven't decided yet. Not only that, but Musk seems a tad bit paranoid. He's regularly talking about all those evil greedy short-term traders that attack the company -- which is a little silly since traders have given Tesla a larger…
"Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that it’s contingent on a shareholder vote." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026914941004001280