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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

#261

If the reimbursements were solely for corporate travel, it might not be a concern. The CEO here sold his previous company for $6.5 billion [1], so he already owned the jet before starting Canoo. The company reimburses him for corporate travel on it. What's concerning is that Canoo is stacking big losses and living on the edge...it seems like excessive spending for a company that hasn't even made a dime of profit. But…

Its concerning the conflict of interest, it can be crystal clear as going to make public pay for playing at your own golf court, but to be is baffling just how public populace is constantly scrutinised for ethics but seem that the rich can crap all over the world and no one cares

Isn't this thread of 100's of comments public scrutiny? And this is just one article.

Not defending this guy but I'd say the opposite happens. When you are rich/famous you are looked at with a magnifying glass. Nothing illegal is happening here, but it doesn't "look good".

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

#262
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…

profit margins is my guess. They are low at the cheap end, and licensing will take a big hit off that.

You gain margin by controlling the supply line. Otherwise you should just be a subsidiary of one the big ones you mentioned.

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

#263
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

People do fork. Tesla's original was a fork of a Lotus. They got the whole chassis/etc from Lotus, dropped in their own drive train and other stuff. Other reply mentioned paccar. Idk why it doesn't happen more often. I suspect most manufacturers aren't willing to license like that.

That wasn't a fork and Elon has stated it was a horrible idea that didn't work.

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

#264
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ne…

Canoo did a 1:23 reverse split last month, so take that into account.... His comp in Rsus is probably shy of $1M

Great point, I did not know this. OTOH, at the time of grant it was a respectable $5M, and it is not the first one.

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

#265
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend, that is not how public companies work. Every common shareholder is an equal, you don't get to launder jet travel the way he's doing - that's securities fraud.

It’s actually not fraud because it’s happening in the open with board approval. And, no not every share holder is an equal. A share holders relevance is proportional to their voting power. While you can’t outright fleece a shareholder, it’s not the case that a single share held is worth the same as is given the same rights as someone holding 51% of all shares. At that point they effectively own the company. The compa…

>He is effectively paying for these flights by buying Canoo stock.

If a CEO is intentionally creating a situation to make a company unprofitable and paying it back by buying shares, that is 100% securities fraud and I'm stunned anyone disagreed with that assertion.

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

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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.

Please drop me a line if you know of any startup hiring for a 500k(ish) comp package.

Here you go:

https://jobs.lever.co/Anthropic/9ba1d7b4-5b21-4ac9-86f3-875a...

If you get hired, reach out to me via my protonmail email (same username) to discuss sending my finder's fee ;)

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

#267
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s actually not fraud because it’s happening in the open with board approval. And, no not every share holder is an equal. A share holders relevance is proportional to their voting power. While you can’t outright fleece a shareholder, it’s not the case that a single share held is worth the same as is given the same rights as someone holding 51% of all shares. At that point they effectively own the company. The compa…

>He is effectively paying for these flights by buying Canoo stock. If a CEO is intentionally creating a situation to make a company unprofitable and paying it back by buying shares, that is 100% securities fraud and I'm stunned anyone disagreed with that assertion.

Yes but that’s actually not what’s happening, so seems a bit of a non sequitur.

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

#268
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He is effectively paying for these flights by buying Canoo stock. If a CEO is intentionally creating a situation to make a company unprofitable and paying it back by buying shares, that is 100% securities fraud and I'm stunned anyone disagreed with that assertion.

Yes but that’s actually not what’s happening, so seems a bit of a non sequitur.

Yes. I agree. That was the point I was making.

I'm not saying the company is committing securities fraud, I am saying that if the company created a scheme as described by the commentor I was replying to, then that would be securities fraud.

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

#269
post #257
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the real issue here is that a CEO who nobody has heard of and is doing a bad job running the company claims that he needs to fly private as a business expense. It's one think for Zuck or Tim Cook to claim that flying commercial would be dangerous and a waste of time, but the way that attitude has filtered down to very small companies is astounding (especially given the outsized negative impact private jet tra…

There's quite an interesting youtube interview / chat with him out recently 'Canoo Tony Aquila Fireside' Chat https://youtu.be/AlTG8S0F_fo It sounds like he's actually doing quite a good job as CEO. The vid from minute 3 to 7 gives much of his strategy and how he got into it. He was a billionaire investor with a background in car parts and servicing that looked at 12 or so EV companies to invest in and figured Canoo…

Just FYI, the stock is down 99% since he joined as CEO in March 2021.

Some of that is market, but TSLA is -15% since then.

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

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 identificat…

California and Washington are amongst two of the most regressive tax systems in the United States.

They punish the poor more than the rich in both those states. That's why they flock there and the size of their economy is a side effect of that.

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