Tesla Stock Plunges After Senior Execs Leave, Musk Smokes Weed During Interview (arstechnica.com)

Today, we have learned that two executives have left Tesla. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla's newly hired chief accounting officer Dave Morton decided to resign because "the level of public attention placed on the company as well as the pace within the company have exceeded [his] expectations." He added: "I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or financial reporting." Tesla's human resources chief Gaby Toledano also announced that should would be leaving the company after taking a leave of absence last month. CEO Elon Musk wrote that Toledo "has been on leave for a few months to spend more time with her family and has decided to continue doing so for personal reasons. She's been amazing and I'm very grateful for everything she's done for Tesla."

These departures certainly have had an impact on Tesla's stock, which is down more than six percent to $262, but an interview Elon Musk conducted with Joe Rogan may have caused the most damage. While discussing a wide range of topics including his tweeting behavior, his Boring Company's flamethrowers, and "neuralink" devices, the Tesla CEO openly smoked a mixed tobacco and marijuana cigarette, sending the internet into a frenzy. Ars Technica reports: Morton joined Tesla on August 6, one day before Musk's infamous tweet claiming that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. Musk was forced to abandon the plan a couple of weeks later. Not only did Musk not have any kind of written funding deal, many Tesla investors saw little upside in approving a deal that would reduce Tesla's transparency and the liquidity of Tesla stock. Morton didn't explicitly mention last month's buyout saga in his statement explaining his departure. But a lot of the "public attention" Tesla received during Morton's brief tenure was focused on the possibility of Tesla going private. It's safe to assume that members of Tesla's finance team were working overtime on issues related to the proposal during Morton's month at Tesla. It's worth noting that marijuana is legal in California (and several other states) if you are 21 or older, but the federal government still strictly prohibits the Schedule 1 substance.

UPDATE: You can watch/listen to the nearly three-hour-long interview here. Rogan manages to pick Musk's brain in great detail and in a refreshingly laid-back manner. We highly recommend a listen if you want to learn more about Musk's ambitions and thought process.

Comments

Still... a good interview.

[internet-redstar]

Still a good interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Still... a good interview.

[gl4ss]

smoking the weed has nothing to do with being years late from profitability. you can only run a company only on your public image for so long. only tweet extravagant ideas lifted from ancient popular mechanics for so long.

the stock tanked due to persons privvy to the books running out like the house was on fire. the big thing people want and need to know out of those books is if they're getting money into the company from making and selling the model 3's. that they don't sell the cheapo model because it wouldn't make money doesn't really put that much confidence into it.

anyhow, for some funnies you can watch some investment advice youtube channels from few days back.

the cars are good/okay yes - but whats that got to do with the company making money or not?

Re:Eagerly Awaiting

[Zero__Kelvin]

Actually he took one hit, said he didn't like it, never got high, and stated that he didn't feel it would be conducive to productivity. Everyone making a big issue of this is an idiot, especially the two idiots that stepped down over it.