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

latimes.com

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

#31

Post by mikestew »

baby wrote: post #9

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

If the SEC were not following through with any other company, I would question their competence and charter. I would be interested in why you think TSLA in particular is being picked on here. I'll prime the conversation by saying that I see the facts as being an agreement where Musk agreed to not do $THAT, and turned right around and did $THAT, where the definition of $THAT can be agreed upon by the vast majority of people.

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

#32

Post by reitzensteinm »

Tomminn wrote: 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…

From the 8-K that same day:

> In total, we are expecting to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles in 2019, representing a growth of approximately 45% to 65% compared to 2018.

The only sane interpretation is that Musk was referring to the potential market size to build on Deepak's statement.

If Musk was referring to anticipated 2019 Model 3 production/sales, then their 8-K guided for 360-400k total vehicles, and Musk on the call a few hours later guided for 450-600k vehicles (assuming historical S/X sales). Which would be nuts.

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

#33

Post by mikestew »

vgchh wrote: post #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 foo…

It's not fun for investors.

It was fun for this investor when I sold calls not too long ago after Musk's last meltdown. Probably not fun for the buyer of that contract who exercised and is now $30/share in the hole.

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

#34

Post by _red »

gowld wrote: post #24
LiquidSky wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why do you think he's being intentionally descructive asnd not just not caring what anyone (including the government) thinks?

Because Tesla, as a company, is actually majority owned by the shareholders that make up 80+% of the company.

A very small move of the SEC can destroy those investors chances of ever being paid back.

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

#35

Post by Phlarp »

LiquidSky wrote: post #18
baby wrote: 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.

I completely agree with everything you've posted on this topic, Elon is 100% his own worst enemy on this front. However, as I scroll through this thread I see lots of top level comments with a single reply from the same (green) account; I can see how some might knee-jerk and jump to calling that astro-turfing/short sellers/someone with an axe to grind.

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

#36

Post by appsonify »

Despegar wrote: post #8

>Of more concern to Tesla investors: What if he knows something they don’t know about the company’s financial future — and is hoping to hang any failure on the nasty, overreaching regulators rather than his own dubious management skills? That seems very possible. I think the reality of scaling up Tesla to live up to its valuation might be too daunting for Elon to handle. It might even be impossible. EV sales as a % o…

I agree, that Musk is hiding something, one that would seriously hamper his reputation. I think it might have to do something with the Solar City acquisition.

He doesn't want to admit he fucked up and failed because it would cast doubt on all his other half-baked ideas.

Tesla will definitely feel the pressure from other car manufacturers, but so far it has nothing much to worry about as the only really viable game changer as of now is the Hyundai Kona Electric. The new Audi e-tron was promising but ruined it with using electric mirrors which require your eyes to focus on far objects and near objects unlike a normal mirror, and heavy steel frame, which pretty much negates any excellent regen (due to heavy weight).

The Jaguar i-Pace is also a good alternative, but I feel like Hyundai's Kona E is an unbeatable value. Forget Chevy Bolt & Nissan Leaf....garbage.

The model 3 is seriously bad....did you see the interior? it's empty....its completely void apart from the giant tablet thing....the price is it's killing point.....now that there are are viable alternatives.

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

#37

Post by ceejayoz »

pbreit wrote: post #28
LiquidSky wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The actual settlement notice says "put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications" which appeared to happen in this case. [1] Also, since the 500,000 number was already public and referring only to Model 3s, it's entirely plausible that 500,000 total cars for the year is not material. The SEC conveniently leaves out this exculpatory evidence. 1: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release…

The press release isn't the full detailed set of conditions.

I don't know that the contract is publicly released, but https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/16/17983032/elon-musk-sec-s... says:

> The company also has to employ a lawyer who will oversee all of Musk’s communications, including his tweets. This person will have to pre-approve any message coming from Musk that could have a material impact on the company’s stock price.

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

#39

Post by rockxloose »

fwip wrote: post #14
baby wrote: post #9

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

Elon does a good enough job of discrediting himself.

Elon's top of range priority table and list of accomplishments make sense.

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

#40

Post by DennisP »

Despegar wrote: post #8

>Of more concern to Tesla investors: What if he knows something they don’t know about the company’s financial future — and is hoping to hang any failure on the nasty, overreaching regulators rather than his own dubious management skills? That seems very possible. I think the reality of scaling up Tesla to live up to its valuation might be too daunting for Elon to handle. It might even be impossible. EV sales as a % o…

It'd be daunting even if he weren't simultaneously running a space launch company and personally leading the rocket engine design team: https://twitter.com/lrocket/status/1099411086711746560?s=21

Though if it's all too much and he'd rather focus on rockets, I don't see why he wouldn't just step down as Tesla CEO. If things go south he could just blame the new CEO.

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