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

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

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world with him, is a whole lot like the world without him though. I mean, I did the thought experiment, and I honestly don't see many things that would be different? Are you arguing that without Musk, we wouldn't have commercial space companies, or electric cars? If so, I find that a bit difficult to believe. The part of your comment about no one being a hero is correct. None of us are any better than anyone else…

I, living in Germany and having worked with and for our car companies, am completely convinced that without him we wouldn't have the electric shift we're seeing right now. We'd have another two decades of half hearted attempts at all kinds of technologies, especially bio fuels but no real progress. Tesla changed the game and I can only imagine it's the same with SpaceX.

Thank God for that. I don't mean anything bad about Germany when I say that. It's just that I don't think people realize how important it is to have good incentives. Getting rich on the basis of successfully electrifying the world is a very good incentive to have. Legacy automakers have to fight their own incentives. As a consequence, they can't quite manage to make the full turn. Regulation has helped curb this a little, but Elon Musk founded the company without the corrupted incentives. Their market capitalization in the electrical energy sector is a direct consequence of this. Anyone who knows about climate science ought to be happy with his accomplishments.

There is a causal link between Elon Musk putting all his money into SpaceX and Tesla and their successes. This is true from the obvious way (they were literally close to death with his last infusion), but its a truth that is more than superficial.

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

#563
post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hate it because of the damage it will do to Tesla and SpaceX when he's likely banned from leading a company. He would only be banned from leading a public company; SpaceX is still private (and, heck, maybe he could realize his plan of taking Tesla private, too.) So, SpaceX wouldn't be directly effected.

SpaceX could be affected by him losing his security clearance for illegal drug use though.

Which literally nobody cares about.

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

#564

He definitely lost it. And it's going to cost him. This is an open and shut case against Musk. He definitely sent out that tweet. Yes, maybe just not enough sleep and too many drugs. Not a good excuse. Tesla might do better with a new CEO. They're past the vision stage. Tesla's problems today are all those of running a big auto plant. Musk might do better focusing on Space-X.

At this point his biggest goal should be avoiding prison, which with the DOJ investigation and the sheer stupidity of his actions is very much on the table.

Billionaires don't go to jail.

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

#565

I very much hate to see this. Not for Musk's sake, as he has been pretty much asking for something like this to happen. I hate it because of the damage it will do to Tesla and SpaceX when he's likely banned from leading a company. Tesla's not exactly lighting the world on fire in terms of potential long term success, but SpaceX really has been doing well in recent years. The fact that they are already refurbishing so…

>I hate it because of the damage it will do to Tesla The day Tesla hires someone who can actually run a car company will be a good day for Tesla.

I recall bailing out a LOT of executives at car companies not that long ago, don't you?

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

#566

Page 21: "Prayer for Relief" interesting that this kind of language is accepted legalese par. 80.IV and 80.V seeks both civil penalties and removal from office. Is it feasible that Musk/Tesla can negotiate only penalties, thus keeping him on the board? Given Musk's position of power over the board, and importance to the company, I could see the board agreeing to it, but would the government.

Per WSJ reporting, they already had negotiated some sort of settlement, presumably with milder action toward all concerned, and then the Tesla side blew up the deal at the last minute, resulting in the SEC's hurried drafting and filing of the complaint we have now.

As a procedural matter, they probably could still settle the case if both sides agreed to do that. But the best deal Tesla could get now is almost certainly worse than what was on offer Monday -- particularly since the case against Musk looks awfully close to open-and-shut.

(The case: 1) He said he had funding secured, 2) he didn't, and 3) the result was to run up the stock price to his personal benefit. 1) and 3) are matters of easily accessible public record; as for 2), Musk thought he could get the money from the Saudi government's "sovereign wealth fund", which was thinking about formally providing it, but had absolutely not agreed to do so. During the BFR announcement, Elon talked pretty frankly about his habit of promising best-case outcomes to give people something to shoort for -- but when it comes to public statements about company financials, it's a very, very, very bad idea.)

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

#567
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've started to think Apple is more competitive on laptops than it looks from the price. Every time I've priced out a laptop with similar configuration to my MBP (including a good-quality display, NvME SSD, good battery life), it always ends up costing about the same as an MBP. And then Apple's customer service definitely tips in their favor (I've been spoiled by fast, convenient, competent repair service at the Appl…

I was just commenting to my wife how remarkable I find it that my 2012 Macbook Pro 15 Retina is meeting all my needs as a software consultant. I used to think 3 years, maybe 4, was the useful lifespan of a high-end machine for daily professional use. In a few months it'll be 7 (seven) years old. It has 3 or 4 dead pixels, but everything else about it is working flawlessly. Maybe they don't make em like they used to,…

I'm posting this from a Macbook Pro I bought in November 2008. My family uses it daily.

My daily work computer is a 2012 Macbook Air which I dropped from a standing height 4 years ago. It has one bent corner but still runs great.

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

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't doubt he's capable of doing that with his background Which background is that? He has an undergraduate degree in economics and a bachelor's degree in physics. I respect the guy but he clearly puts a lot into managing his image. As a relevant example, he used to claim to have been in the Ph.D. program at Stanford, but had to retract that (I leave it as an exercise to the reader to find that on Google).

I'm very curious about the Stanford thing. Do you mean that he was never admitted? Or simply that he never officially enrolled? I tried my hand at googling this but found nothing but re-hashes of the same story of how he left after two days.

The biography of Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance talks about this. Which I recommend everybody read. I don't remember the details but I think he was admitted but not enrolled. He ended up not going because he thought pursuing an internet company in Silicon Valley was more valuable than research work at the time.

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

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the work that Musk has done. Everyone has to play by the same rules though. We cannot bend the law because someone has otherwise done amazing work.

So how many financial execs got punished for creating the 2008 financial crisis, the worst in our lifetimes (hopefully) , which brought the world to the brink ? https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/finance/309544-why-ha...

What they did might have been morally appalling, but much harder to pin as breaking a law. What Elon did was a blatant and highly public violation of regulations

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

#570
post #406

He was trying to bankrupt the short-sellers, and he was doing it by lying: the price would soar, their options would be called, and they'd lose their shirts, all for a lie. When you're head of a public company, that's a crime. Not only will the SEC come after him, but the short sellers can probably sue him too. I have huge respect for his engineering ability, but he has messed up badly. He's overextended and it seems…

> He was trying to bankrupt the short-sellers, and he was doing it by lying

I'm out of the loop - can you point me to some proof of this?

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