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SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

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141–150 of 884 posts

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#141

This comment I made a few weeks ago is coming alot closer to the truth than I would have expected. I hope for Space X and Tesla's sake that the reports of a directory and Executive ban don't come true. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18016250#18016292 SpaceX is doing well, Tesla has pulled itself back from the brink and may actually become a profitable car company. All Elon had to do was keep his head down and n…

I'd hope the company itself would be fine. I really hate this idea of the grand visionary. A good friend of mine who is a mechanical engineer despises Musk. I listened to a bit of his Joe Regan interview and when Regan asked him how he has the time to do all of the things he does, there are smoke jokes about him being an alien, but not once did he say, "Well I have an amazing team of engineers" and credit all the tho…

Well let's just put it this way after trying out new MBP I just bought my first non Apple notebook since 2006. I also have 0 intention of buying any iPhone models with notch. On space X a son of a friend who actually works at Space X as eng. mentioned that Musk gets pretty involved on eng. side of things (obviously pretty anecdotal evidence). I also seen many times Musk praising a team at Space X and Tesla so drawing far reaching conclusion from a single interview of a dude who is obviously under a ton of pressure and is physically and mentally exhausted is a bit strange.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#142
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I get it. This is how capitalism is supposed to work. But I don't think anyone is going to care about the wealth of these short sellers when the climate is irreversibly changed. China is smart. They don't fuck around with tax incentives and other silly market manipulators. They use central policy planning to drive forward renewables and battery electric vehicles at nation state scale, and it's a damn shame the Un…

Without short sellers or another market mechanism to call bullshit on over-inflated and over-hyped investments, capital will be badly allocated. You're imagining some future where because of shorts we don't put enough money into TSLA and never have electric cars. That's not how this works. With shorts (if the short sellers are right) TSLA is full of it, and capital is much better allocated at BMW, Toyota, or some oth…

I'm ok with shorts in general, but I do wish that the SEC put at least as much energy into prosecuting some of the bad behavior by some negative parties (who may or may not have been shorts, tbh) as it is the company.

I follow the company closely, and have definitely seen some questionable behavior that seemed to be aimed at trying to create the negative news cycle for the business. Things like promoted reddit articles and a horde of bogus NHTSA complaints can be very damaging to the business' fundamentals.

But maybe there is more investigation into these things than I realize, and certainly the need to investigate this material doesn't negate the need to investigate Musk's own questionable conduct as well.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#143
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say the shorts don't have any power to hurt tesla, but much of tesla's and elon musk's personal debt is backed by Tesla shares. If the price dips too low, it's potentially catastrophic for the company and him.

Is there any evidence the short sellers have ever caused the price to move at all?

No, I don't think all that negativism in the news about a company that is disrupting the automotive industry in less than 15 years, have a product that customers literally make lines to buy and they love it when they finally receive them are brought up by short sellers. I mean, who would not want a company like that to succeed? /sacarsm

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#144

> “In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source,” Interesting. How do they know? Did someone from SEC called Musk and he said: "Nah, we're just in talks with investors, nothing lined up yet".

Presumably they have engaged in some investigative work to determine these facts. They apparently interviewed people from TSLA's board, and perhaps Musk himself, already.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#145
post #119

"The suit seeks an order from a judge barring Musk from serving as an officer or director of a public company, a request often made in SEC lawsuits, as well as unspecified monetary penalties." Does this imply that they want to remove him from being CEO and from the board of directors?

Yes, it does.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#146
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an investor, and I have not lost trust (temporarily degraded perhaps, but certainly not irreparably!). I also take the long view; Elon is instrumental to the long-term outcome for Tesla, our species, and our planet.

You sound a bit like Doctor Strange here. Sure he's made some bold moves intended to steer us toward a better future, but the fate of civilization does not rest on his shoulders. Unless we make him President. Don't make him President.

President of what? The United States? He was born in South Africa so that's not going to happen.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#147
post #65
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Honestly, what does Musk bring right now? If Tesla's product is good, if it's technology is good why shouldn't they succeed without Musk providing an inconvenient distraction.

The thing is, the product is not good, yet. They've yet to ship a $35,000 car, they've yet to hit their production goals, they've yet to justify their sky-high valuation, and their current build quality is below what one would expect for a $50,000 car. This doesn't mean that failing to fix those problems will kill Tesla. It may, however, cause a large drop in stock price, massive losses for shareholders at large, and…

I would argue that a lot of those things are true for current BMWs as well. They've fallen below the quality targets that I expect for their price and their base prices are too high.

I'm not sure that the summation of that would be that the "product is not good", though. It just means that some aspects of it are disappointing.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#148
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference with Gates and Jobs is Tesla has not delivered, i.e. it has not become profitable enough to guarantee success in the future. At this point he's indispensable. (There is also the thought that without him Tesla does not have an advantage vs cheaper competitors from all around the world)

This is key, I think. Microsoft had enough runway to figure it out. Apple has a multiple of that. What does Tesla have to keep it alive while they figure out the next step?

Your comment made me think of Tim Cook. He could run Tesla the rest of the way.

Re: SEC Sues Musk and Seeks Ban for His Tweets on Go-Private Deal

#150
post #120

What if it was true, what if he was working with a group to secure funding to take the company private? Would that make the claim that he was 'deceiving' the investors invalid? I don't really know anything about this kinda thing but I would think if he was just saying that he was working towards that goal but deiced not to do it wouldn't be 'deceiving.'

When I'm making a deal, I usually keep my mouth shut about it until every document that needs to be signed, has been signed. The Musk worship on here and the Internet in general has for too long overlooked his impulsive behaviour in the capacity of his CEO role.
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