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Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

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Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#121
post #36

The headline is relatively clickbait-y. Its double their revenue because their revenue is basically 0. Their actual expenses are hundreds of millions, of which this 1.7 million is a drop in the bucket. Once their upfront expenses are paid they will (presumably) be making hundreds of millions/billions in revenue, which means this 1.7m is not particularly important. You can talk about standard complaints of CEOs with p…

$1.7 million is 1-3 employees working to ship your product. When you're company is on the edge of collapse you should have your priorities straight. Diverting company resources to your own private jet is a preposterous use of resources and, imo, speaks volumes about where Canoo is headed.

> $1.7 million is 1-3 employees

Good lord. You hiring?

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#122
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need at least 400 Million to enter the car manufacturer market. The investment does sound absolutely reasonable at this point.

Can someone explain why people try to make new cars from the ground up, rather than "fork" a base platform from GM/Toyota/KIA/whoever with a different design and little features? This happens in literally every other market and industry. hell, just look at PCs and laptops. Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little thing…

Some companies will use a contract manufacturer to produce their cars for them. For example Fisker (about bankrupt) used Magna Stehr in austria to produce their EVs.

When you talk about a base platform I assume you are meaning an entire drive train? Most pieces of a car are going to be produced elsewhere and then assembled. Canoo isn’t making their own batteries or motors. Those come from battery and motor manufacturers. Canoo or a similar company might even buy structural battery pack built to spec by CATL.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#123
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need at least 400 Million to enter the car manufacturer market. The investment does sound absolutely reasonable at this point.

Can someone explain why people try to make new cars from the ground up, rather than "fork" a base platform from GM/Toyota/KIA/whoever with a different design and little features? This happens in literally every other market and industry. hell, just look at PCs and laptops. Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little thing…

It’s a classic make vs buy decision. What base platform is offered by GM/Toyota/Kia/etc?

There are some examples where car makers (both EV and ICE) will sell components to competitors but in general this is pretty rare. Most companies want to control key aspects of their supply chain.

Rivian did use motors from Bosch but is now in the process of using their own internally designed motors. This allows them to build exactly what they need and avoid relying on Bosch for a key component of their vehicles.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#124
post #36

The headline is relatively clickbait-y. Its double their revenue because their revenue is basically 0. Their actual expenses are hundreds of millions, of which this 1.7 million is a drop in the bucket. Once their upfront expenses are paid they will (presumably) be making hundreds of millions/billions in revenue, which means this 1.7m is not particularly important. You can talk about standard complaints of CEOs with p…

CEOs get all kinds of compensation. Business jet travel, security, etc. This line item could be just tax optimization for this guy.

I am not trying to defend him, he is getting paid a lot:

"On May 5, 2023, the Board granted Mr. Aquila an award of 6,884,682 RSUs. These awards vest on May 5, 2024, subject to continuous service." [1]

At current stock price it is ~$20M. Getting outraged about additional $1.7M that was negotiated several years ago is strange. It does make a great headline, but would it change anything if he is paid $22M and pays for the jet out of pocket?

[1] https://ir.stockpr.com/canoo/sec-filings-email/content/00016...

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#125
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need at least 400 Million to enter the car manufacturer market. The investment does sound absolutely reasonable at this point.

Can someone explain why people try to make new cars from the ground up, rather than "fork" a base platform from GM/Toyota/KIA/whoever with a different design and little features? This happens in literally every other market and industry. hell, just look at PCs and laptops. Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little thing…

[deleted]

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a shell company used to dodge taxes, presumably? It's a holding company for the CEO's assets. Virtually everyone worth $10 million+ has one. When and why did people become so conspiratorial and see boogeymen in everything they don't grasp?

It's hasn't been a conspiracy theory since the Panama papers came out. Everyone is now aware of the extent rich people go to use tax havens and are rightfully upset. They make record profits, encourage irresponsible consumerism, and don't even pay their fair share for the damage they inflict upon the world. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/panama-paradise-pandora-pap... Furthermore there's a reason rich people flock…

People flock to Delaware because it's the most corporate-friendly state, especially regarding regulations and court cases.

Washington and California are two massive economies, so it's no surprise that rich people flock there.

If this CEO wanted to register a shell company to dodge taxes, he would have done it in better places than Southlake, Texas [1]. Anyone can register an LLC as long as they have valid identification and pay the $300 Texas filing fee...nothing nefarious.

Talking about the Panama Papers will be a long story, but notice how relatively few Americans are on that list. It was mostly people from developing countries with weak rule of law and high levels of corruption...the type where rich folks hide assets to avoid the government or rival business goons coming for it, and it's much easier to cheat taxes in those countries because of weak law enforcement.

1- https://pitchbook.com/profiles/limited-partner/232176-79

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#127
post #6

Wow, it’s bad enough if they were NetJet fees. This is WeWork level sketch: “ Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for use of an aircraft” This is a PUBLIC company??

Such deals are reasonable under some circumstances. For example, Tesla pays SpaceX for Musk's travels on the SpaceX jet (whenever he travels for Tesla-related business). But definitely not for a company with just a few $100k in annual revenue that's teetering on bankruptcy. Not surprised it's a SPAC stock... Edit: Upon digging; I discovered that this CEO has invested $230 million+ in Canoo (from personal funds he mad…

It’s a public company, he can’t treat it as his private company even if he invested $230M and it’s only worth $150M now and he’s trying to make up for his losses

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#128
The boss already owns the jet. Now he makes his company rent it from him, so he can zoom around in the plane he already owns, and that he would be zooming around in even if he weren't the Canoo boss.

I don't think a company should be paying for the boss's jet, if the company isn't near break-even. I'd say the boss doesn't believe the company has legs, and he's extracting cash while he can.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#129
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need at least 400 Million to enter the car manufacturer market. The investment does sound absolutely reasonable at this point.

Can someone explain why people try to make new cars from the ground up, rather than "fork" a base platform from GM/Toyota/KIA/whoever with a different design and little features? This happens in literally every other market and industry. hell, just look at PCs and laptops. Like why can't a Canoo or Rivian license a base EV platform and come up with their own chassis design, infotainment system, and other little thing…

Using an ICE base platform for EVs doesn't make sense, and there is no EV base platform for sale/license. Companies building the EVs are holding their cards tightly to their chests for competitive advantage.

Re: Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet

#130
post #87
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it there ? Are earthquake and food (and mosquitoes in the bushes) as bad as the rumours say ? (serious question about the first 2)

[flagged]

I wasn't aware we (Canada) did anything different than the US.

We had some press blow up (trucker rally etc) but we didn't have the draconian mandates the Aussies did, that's for sure.

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