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SEC Charges Elon Musk With Fraud Over His Statements To Take Tesla Private (bloomberg.com)
U.S. securities regulators have sued Elon Musk for allegedly making false statements related to his abandoned efforts to take Tesla Motors private. Bloomberg News broke the news Thursday, citing docket entry in Manhattan federal court. Last month, Musk had expressed his intentions to take Tesla private, and that he had secured the funding. Taking Tesla private, which would have helped the company avoid making short-term commitments and goals, would be the "best path forward," Musk had said at the time. Even as investors had shown agreement to Musk's move, a few days later, he announced that after further discussions, everyone believes that Tesla should remain public. Amid all of this, some argued that Musk made the "false" claim just to hurt short-sellers. From the lawsuit: This case involves a series of false and misleading statements made by Elon Musk, the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Inc. ("Tesla"), on August 7, 2018, regarding taking Tesla, a publicly traded company, private. Musk's statements, disseminated via Twitter, falsely indicated that, should he so choose, it was virtually certain that he could take Tesla private at a purchase price that reflected a substantial premium over Tesla stock's then-current share price, that funding for this multi-billion dollar transaction had been secured, and that the only contingency was a shareholder vote. In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source. During a press conference, Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the SEC's division of enforcement, said: A chairman and CEO of a public company has important responsibilities to shareholders. Those responsibilities include the need to be scrupulous and careful about the truth and accuracy of statements made to the investing public, whether those statements are made in traditional forms such as a press release or an earnings call or through less formal methods such as Twitter or other social media. Neither celebrity status nor reputation as a technological innovator provide an exemption from the federal securities laws. In a statement to CNBC, Musk said, "This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed. I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way."
Slashdot article is wrong. It's only against Musk, not Tesla. As longs have been pointing out for ages that it would be, while shorts kept insisting it would be against Tesla. He's also not been charged, he's been sued, in a civil case. "Civil Action No. 1:18-cv-8865"
But come on people, get that price down! I've got dry powder and it's right before the Q3 deliveries numbers ;)
"Who the hell is Nietzche? It's a question stupid people are asking." -- Newscaster, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
I dunno, seems like he has a solid defense: "no reasonable person would believe anything I promise".
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Given the Tesla burn rate, they need access to that capital in the next few months. They cannot let it drag on past November. Stock issues typically have 30 to 90 days requirements on announcement, meaning that if Telsa is burning capital at the rate it's been burning, they'll be out of cash around February 2019. So if they have a 90 day announcement period for more stock sales, they would need to announce by the end of October. Having yourself locked down at that time is basically a death sentence.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I honestly can't think of a worse group of folks than financial lawyers, or a better group of people than SpaceX.
I'm not worried about SpaceX.
However, Tesla may be screwed.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
OK, please show the financial report to back up your numbers. Because the financials filed with the SEC say they lose money. Or is this yet another case of Tesla fraud? The reality is - based on Tesla's own numbers - they lost $17,600 per car sold in Q2 2018, and they lost money before accounting for things like R&D or interest (let alone principal) on debt.
So - put up or shut up. What numbers are you using - real numbers, official financial statement numbers - that say they're making $10,000 profit on each car? I'm not remaining willfully ignorant - I'm looking at the numbers, I've asked you for your backing before, and all you ever give is vitriol and silence. Put up or shut up.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Investments in property, plant and equipment (capital investments) are amortized over their useful life (25-50 for buildings, 15 for robotics, 3 for computers, etc...)
You are attempting to amortize all of the capital investments immediately, which is the only way that you can come up with numbers that show a loss on every vehicle.
you are only demonstrating your complete lack of knowledge and not really being convincing beyond that