Tesla IPO Raises $226 Million
An anonymous reader writes "Tesla, which will trade under TSLA on Nasdaq, has been priced at $17 per share, allowing the electric car start-up to raise more than $226 million in its IPO. Investors were expecting the share price target range to be between $14 and $16 but the overflow of excitement saw Tesla increase the number of shares it plans to offer to 13.3 million, nearly 20 percent more than originally planned." Reader hlovy contributes a link from Xconomy.com summarizing the skepticism among some analysts as to how much staying power TSLA will demonstrate.
Disclaimer: I own a Roadster, have a $5k down payment on a Model S, and bought a couple thousand shares of TSLA this morning.
There's a lot of optimism priced into the stock right now. I wouldn't expect them to go out of business in the next couple of years or anything, and I might pick up a few shares if it gets down to $10-$12 or so, but a $22/share price sounds way too optimistic for my liking. I'd wait for the headline-buzz to fade a little before pouring too much money into it.
Telsa is not GOOG. Automobiles are a capital-intensive business.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Tesla's model is new to the auto industry: manufacturer sells direct to consumer, and also owns the distribution network and the service departments. That's nothing new in high tech: Apple's made a fortune using that model.
One difference is that Apple's exposure in a recall is limited to the replacement cost of a small household appliance.
It doesn't have to "service" anything.
Tesla has a $100K Roadster and a $65K Model S sedan in the works.
That implies a full-scale luxury dealer showroom and auto repair garage. Not a niche in the Galleria Mall.