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Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

wsj.com

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Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#11

Post by beervirus »

vikramkr wrote: post #3

It's really concerning that theres essentially a giant liability, Elon's personal debt, that doesnt show up on the balance sheet. As the article discusses, a margin call would be devastating, and hopefully any irresponsible decisions in his personal lifestyle choices don't spill over to put Tesla or SpaceX at risk. Especially considering how powerful a force they've been in driving consumer changes in vehicles and in…

> Tesla’s board has capped how much Mr. Musk can borrow at 25% of the value of whatever shares he pledges as collateral.

The value would have to decline a LOT before he got a margin call.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#12

Post by [deleted] »

Alupis wrote: post #5
toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very unlikely, but if necessary Tesla would go through a Chapter 11 reorg, not a 7 liquidation. The brand, charging network, and manufacturing capacity has too much value to throw away. When Tesla was on the brink of insolvency years ago, he had a handshake deal with Larry Page (they jetpooled together) for Google to acquire Tesla and for Musk to continue to run day to day operations. Wasn’t necessary, but there are…

Either that, or Musk fails and brings down all the things propped up by his charisma and enthusiasm... and the world learns a lesson.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#13

Post by tehjoker »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4
vikramkr wrote: post #3

It's really concerning that theres essentially a giant liability, Elon's personal debt, that doesnt show up on the balance sheet. As the article discusses, a margin call would be devastating, and hopefully any irresponsible decisions in his personal lifestyle choices don't spill over to put Tesla or SpaceX at risk. Especially considering how powerful a force they've been in driving consumer changes in vehicles and in…

Very unlikely, but if necessary Tesla would go through a Chapter 11 reorg, not a 7 liquidation. The brand, charging network, and manufacturing capacity has too much value to throw away. When Tesla was on the brink of insolvency years ago, he had a handshake deal with Larry Page (they jetpooled together) for Google to acquire Tesla and for Musk to continue to run day to day operations. Wasn’t necessary, but there are…

The people in charge in America only fail upwards, never down.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#14

Post by gpm »

mike_d wrote: post #6

Remember that Elon agreed to have his tweets reviewed by Tesla's in-house counsel in lieu of formal SEC action after he lied about taking the company private. He recently tweeted that the stock price was too high. Something legal would never allow him to say, especially if he is on the verge of exercising options. My bet is the SEC isn't going to tolerate this behavior anymore, and he won't be at the helm of any of h…

He agreed to have material tweets reviewed by Tesla's in house counsel before publishing. With a specific definition of material and examples of content that would be material. This tweet IMHO doesn't fall under that definition of material. Even if you think it did, you're blindly assuming that this tweet wasn't reviewed (which it might well have been, if it was reviewed it was certainly legal instead of probably legal).

The SEC doesn't have a choice to tolerate or not tolerate this behavior. They basically lost the last time they sued (it ended in a settlement where the only concession to them was rephrasing an existing agreement after a judge said some strong words), and they would probably lose again if they sued this time.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#16

Post by mcot2 »

Alupis wrote: post #8
api wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson learned would be "don't do new things, and don't believe in anyone who suggests that you do new things." That's not a positive lesson. The other lesson could be "maybe we shouldn't rely on one person's charisma to drive us to do new and interesting things," but that's not likely to be the lesson learned.

I'd think it's the second lesson that will be learned. Musk has been on the verge of failure for years, and cracks are showing now more than ever before. I'd hate for everyone to stop dreaming for tomorrow just because one guy couldn't pull off everything imaginable. For all the good things Musk does, he also does a lot of bad things. Including but not limited to dreaming up absurd fantasies to "reinvent" industries…

Theres a lot of B.S. in your post but I just wanted to point out that Elon constantly praises the Tesla and SpaceX teams on Twitter, Quarterly conference calls, Podcasts and in other investor presentations.

There is for sure a cult of personality like there was for Steve Jobs.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#17

Post by reitzensteinm »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4
vikramkr wrote: post #3

It's really concerning that theres essentially a giant liability, Elon's personal debt, that doesnt show up on the balance sheet. As the article discusses, a margin call would be devastating, and hopefully any irresponsible decisions in his personal lifestyle choices don't spill over to put Tesla or SpaceX at risk. Especially considering how powerful a force they've been in driving consumer changes in vehicles and in…

Very unlikely, but if necessary Tesla would go through a Chapter 11 reorg, not a 7 liquidation. The brand, charging network, and manufacturing capacity has too much value to throw away. When Tesla was on the brink of insolvency years ago, he had a handshake deal with Larry Page (they jetpooled together) for Google to acquire Tesla and for Musk to continue to run day to day operations. Wasn’t necessary, but there are…

If Tesla goes through Chapter 11, there's no way in hell Musk will be running it afterwards.

He gets away with all his shenanigans because he's a rain maker.

If his incredible run of success dries up, the narrative is going to shift hard.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#19

Post by kiba »

Alupis wrote: post #8
api wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson learned would be "don't do new things, and don't believe in anyone who suggests that you do new things." That's not a positive lesson. The other lesson could be "maybe we shouldn't rely on one person's charisma to drive us to do new and interesting things," but that's not likely to be the lesson learned.

I'd think it's the second lesson that will be learned. Musk has been on the verge of failure for years, and cracks are showing now more than ever before. I'd hate for everyone to stop dreaming for tomorrow just because one guy couldn't pull off everything imaginable. For all the good things Musk does, he also does a lot of bad things. Including but not limited to dreaming up absurd fantasies to "reinvent" industries…

Not to mention taking credit for all the hard work the actual aerospace, mechanical and other engineers are doing under Musk. Very seldom do you hear Musk talk about how incredible the team is and how lucky he is to have them working on these problems.

He constantly praise or give credit to his teams, even full credit where it is due.

No, instead he has the gall to call himself Lead Designer this, or Chief Architect that. We all know he's not sitting down and crunching math to design rockets and cars and more.

Yes? All the bucks stop with him. He makes engineering decisions, bad or good. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have the relevant degree or did the calculation on a particular project.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#20

Post by omgwtfbyobbq »

Alupis wrote: post #8
api wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson learned would be "don't do new things, and don't believe in anyone who suggests that you do new things." That's not a positive lesson. The other lesson could be "maybe we shouldn't rely on one person's charisma to drive us to do new and interesting things," but that's not likely to be the lesson learned.

I'd think it's the second lesson that will be learned. Musk has been on the verge of failure for years, and cracks are showing now more than ever before. I'd hate for everyone to stop dreaming for tomorrow just because one guy couldn't pull off everything imaginable. For all the good things Musk does, he also does a lot of bad things. Including but not limited to dreaming up absurd fantasies to "reinvent" industries…

What cracks are showing more than ever before?
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