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Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

latimes.com

11–20 of 225 posts

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#11
This is a partial transcript of the Q4 2018 earnings call. There is a strong case to be made that the information was not market moving.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer.

Colin Rusch

Thanks so much. Can you talk a little bit about the geographic dispersion for the guidance for 2019, where you're expecting the Model 3s to sell through as well as the other models?

Elon Musk

Well, I think we did, actually. Yes, it's clear in our letter.

Deepak Ahuja

We indicated in Q1, we will start delivering Model 3s in Europe and China. And we also shared a chart showing the potential market size for midsized premium sedans in North America, Europe and Asia, suggesting those markets could be even bigger. So I think that gives a good sense of where we'll be. And we'll launch the right-hand drive version at some point to go to the other markets.

Elon Musk

Yes. Maybe in the order of 350,000 to 500,000 Model 3s, something like that this year.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#13
post #3

I'm honestly unsure what he has to gain by doing this. I can't imagine that the departure of the counsel isn't related. Maybe the GC announced he was leaving and that rattled Musk somehow? Very strange.

He wants attention. Good, bad or otherwise.

Yep. Musk is a manchild with too much money and an ego to match.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#15
post #9

This sounds like a targeted campaign to discredit Musk. Careful about what you read.

Your comment is (currently) downvoted, but it's a perfectly reasonable suggestion considering plenty of evidence of entrenched interests doing everything they can to take down Musk, obviously including the massive short position against Tesla, and the oil industry writer for the NY Times intentionally driving in circles in a parking lot to cause the car to run out of battery:

https://www.tesla.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

He's got the military industrial complex against him with SpaceX, and the oil and car industries against him with Tesla. It doesn't get more imposing than that.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#16

I liked Matt Levine's analysis: > probably what will happen is that Musk will go to court and the judge will yell at him and he will say he’s sorry and then six minutes later he’ll tweet “my fingers were crossed and I am NOT sorry” and he’ll go on TV that night and be like “you know what I have contempt for? Court,” and everyone will just be like “ehhhhhhhhhh good enough.” ( https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles…

No, this doesn't seem right. Musk is clearly burning through the good will he'd built up. There's going to be a limit to how much his aura can shield him, and it seems like he's really pushing to find that limit.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#17
post #11

This is a partial transcript of the Q4 2018 earnings call. There is a strong case to be made that the information was not market moving. Operator Thank you. Our next question is from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. Colin Rusch Thanks so much. Can you talk a little bit about the geographic dispersion for the guidance for 2019, where you're expecting the Model 3s to sell through as well as the other models? Elon Musk Wel…

It doesn't matter if it's market moving. Or rather, the terms of his settlement are that all of his communications need to be pre-approved by counsel to determine what is market moving. He didn't get the pre-approval so he's broken the agreement.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#18
post #9

This sounds like a targeted campaign to discredit Musk. Careful about what you read.

Why this bizarre cultish paranoia? He's in this mess because he committed securities fraud. He got a slap-on-the wrist sweetheart deal and he can't even stick to that.

He's done all of this to himself, and he can't seem to stop.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#19
Musk is clearly not making it any easier and I wish he would be more careful (and continue to be on Twitter). It's not fun for investors. Please don't create these fires.

I also hope that SEC would maintains an objective view of the issue and not get offended at the lack of respect from Musk.

Finally, I would love for Tesla to continue to thrive under Musk's leadership, unless he continues to shoot himself in his foot.

Re: Is Elon Musk trying to commit ‘suicide by SEC’ by taunting the agency?

#20
post #5

Tesla is gaining a lot of free publicity from this.

Probably not, but...

Electric cars are associated with environmentalists. This makes your brand hard to market to conservatives, despite the fact that they are big part of the luxury car market. I wonder if sticking it to the SEC could be used to rebrand Tesla...

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