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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.
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.
Still a good interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
AstroTurf somewhere else. The “most damaging” thing has nothing to do with pot. We have a “blue chip” stock that is run like a startup.
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.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Watch the stock sink even quicker for Telsa and go bust by the end of this year?
Or watch the stock dive 'way down, watch Elon buy much of it up with the money he's already cashed out, and end up with a LOT less of the company owned by others.
Is he crazy like The Mad Hatter, or like a fox?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Nobody stepped down over it. Morton left because he was a privatization expert for a company no longer looking at going private, and felt nobody cared about his privatization ideas anyway. Toledano has been on a leave of absence for over a month. The fun thing about Toledano is that people got to FUD Tesla twice - once when she went on leave, and again when it was confirmed that she wouldn't be returning. Two for one - what a deal!
Even if you assume that her "personal reasons" and "family" is PR speak (and not literally what it says on the tin), the simple matter is that - as a company which has nearly two dozen people at the VP level or higher (not even counting department heads) - executive departures will happen at regular intervals. Just like they do at all companies (but particularly in Silicon Valley, where average executive stays are shorter than average). The main difference is that people don't have a giant FUD blitz every time, say, some VP in Kraft Foods leaves.
They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good. Not everybody's good, but everyone tries.
Model 3 does not use 18650s ("laptop batteries"), it uses 2170s. And S & X's 18650s, while a standard format, have a chemistry and structure engineered for battery packs, on a line that only produces them for the S & X.
SpaceX has taken over the lion's share of the entire planet's commercial launch industry. But "meh", right?
They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good. Not everybody's good, but everyone tries.
Sometimes I don't know if you shorts get things wrong through deliberate FUD, or just a really bad game of telephone. Because your (incorrect) initial rumour was "The Air Force is considering revoking Musk's security clearance", but that's apparently already morphed to "has just revoked his security clearance and canceled all contracts". The latter BTW having nothing to do with Musk's security clearance regardless.
But for those who actually care? Even the initial claim was wrong. "Reports that Musk security clearance under review are inaccurate: U.S. Air Force".
They carry weapons and they know if you've been bad or good. Not everybody's good, but everyone tries.
"hen the stock hits $4000 as it is expected to do."
That's after the 420:1 reverse split.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
$4,000 / would be sixteen times the size of the largest car companies in the world.
Here's the reality:
Volkwagen revenue S$268 billion
Toyota revenue $261 billion
Daimler revenue $164 billion
General Motors revenue $146 billion
Toyota revenue $138 billion
Telsa revenue $11 billion
Tesla would need to grow ten times larger just to become a significant car company (though still not in the top 5). If they are phenemonally successful, it will justify a stock price of $80.
Look dude, it's clear you're a true believer-- I don't know what degree to which the things you're saying are deliberate spin, and what aren't. I am neither long nor short TSLA (am investigating perhaps buying convertible notes & hedging with shorting the stock, but that would be a mostly-long position).
1. David Morton wasn't brought in to take TSLA private-- or shouldn't have been, as that's not his expertise. Sure, he did a transaction like that as a junior financial executive-- 16 years ago, but has been a CFO of a public company for the past 3 years and now went to Anaplan which is working on going public. It's believed that he was being positioned to take the reins as TSLA's CFO before his departure. I can sure understand shitting a brick and polishing your resume if you go somewhere to be a public CFO, and your first day, the chairman/CEO tweets about privatization without talking to you.
2. It's never good, with this degree of scrutiny, to do the kind of stupid shit that has gone down the past month.
3. TSLA needs more capital. It is difficult to fund significant growth from operations, and practically impossible with TSLA's degree of debt loading. While it may be possible to survive Q1's debt payment requirements (or even rally the stock and convert the notes), that doesn't leave extensive funds for capital expansion.
That said, with TSLA's prior capitalization it should have been easy to get funding from a small (in share) equity round-- if stupid shit stops capital markets should open back up.
4. TSLA's valuation is predicated, even now, on making it through this challenging time and significantly growing and maintaining market share. This is never good if you have many market entrants who are willing to sell product at a loss (for regulatory compliance reasons). This is never good if other participants are willing, nay practically required, to enter the market and sell below cost and have greater access to subsidies and favorable trade terms than you.
TSLA has a better product and has an initial lead in share and a positive brand reputation. In a growing market, that's a wonderful position to be in. But success is predicated on strong execution, access to capital, and not doing stupid stuff.