While the U.S. and now Canada enjoy carrying out international diplomacy via tweet, the business world lays out a few ground rules. If you’re the head of a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company, maybe it’s best to not announce your intention to take the company private — while stating there’s funding on hand to pull it off — in a tweetstorm, especially if there aren’t details to back it up. Dry, boring, but concise media releases or regulatory filings alerting shareholders usually do the trick.

After looking into Tesla’s going-private plan, announced August 7th by CEO Elon Musk over Twitter, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission now wants hard answers. While it might be willing to overlook the tweet (Musk, a prolific tweeter, previously told investors that announcements could happen this way), the SEC wants Musk to back up his “funding secured” claim. What person, persons, or entity made this deal possible?

Maybe a round of subpoenas will clear things up. (Read More…)

A truly bizarre rumor is just one of the issues facing Tesla CEO Elon Musk as questions swirl following the August 7th announcement that he wants to take the publicly traded company private.

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission looks into Musk’s claim that there’s “funding secured” for the potential buyout, Musk was forced to confront a claim involving, of all things, a rapper, drugs, and spontaneous tweeting. Always a sideshow with this company…

The financial world, on the other hand, wants to know more about this Saudi business. (Read More…)

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced his intention to take the automaker private. But speculation quickly arose that the claim was just a clever ploy to drive up the company’s share price and burn short sellers, a group Musk seems to have a particular disdain for. This resulted in a shareholder complaint, filed Friday as a securities-fraud class action in federal court in San Francisco, alleging he lied to manipulate shareholder prices.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission was already investigating the matter at the time of the lawsuit’s filing. While the bulk of the initial investigation involved asking Musk if he was lying, it’s presumably advanced in scope and complexity since then. The lynchpin to the whole issue is whether Tesla actually secured the billions in funding necessary to go private. Even though the CEO said the money is real, he did not specify who would provide it.

That changed on Monday morning, when Musk pointed to oil-rich Saudi Arabia. But it’s not as simple as it sounds.  (Read More…)

Like a Netflix original movie with lots of action but a threadbare plot, Elon Musk’s plan to take Tesla private has some glaring holes. The largest of which is how he’ll finance the buyback of stock (at $420 a share) to make his dream possible.

The list of people who’d like to know where exactly the money’s coming from is a long one, but at the top of the list is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — followed, apparently, by Tesla’s own board of directors. (Read More…)

Six members of the Tesla board of directors issued a statement Wednesday, claiming CEO Elon Musk spoke to them last week about his plan to take the publicly traded company private. Musk shocked investors and analysts Tuesday after he tweeted his vision of the automaker’s corporate future, claiming funding existed to pull it off. He later shared an internal email to employees on the company’s blog.

Though Musk’s blog post doesn’t mention how he’d bankroll such a massive buyout, the company’s board says he discussed the funding issue with them. (Read More…)

After igniting a blaze of speculation via Twitter and halting the trading of Tesla stock, CEO Elon Musk made public an internal email sent to employees. In it, he lays out his reasoning for taking the publicly traded automaker private.

While there’s no mention of the secured funding mentioned in his earlier tweets, the desired share price — $420 — remains. And Musk seems quite confident that shareholders will see things his way. (Read More…)

Tesla may be going private, according to a Tuesday message from Elon Musk’s Twitter account. “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,” the CEO wrote. “Good morning,” he said immediately afterward, accompanying the message with the smiley face emoji.

What followed was rampant media speculation as to whether Musk was in his right mind or not, while Musk continued responding to questions online.

“I don’t have a controlling vote now & wouldn’t expect any shareholder to have one if we go private. I won’t be selling in either scenario,” he said after being asked whether it would be an outright sale and if he could retain control of the company. “My hope is *all* current investors remain with Tesla even if we’re private. Would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with Tesla. Already do this with Fidelity’s SpaceX investment.”

Meanwhile, CNBC and a few other news outlets noted that the number 420 has a special significance in the marijuana-smoking community and that Musk’s good-morning tweet was issued at around 1:30 p.m. Eastern, which — gasp — isn’t in the morning at all! (Read More…)

Complain about Tesla Motors’ hype machine all you like; it’s still an innovative company. Unfortunately, it has painted itself into a bit of a corner as a result. Still lacking the production might of its much larger competitors, it continues to brand itself as an upstart as it works on improving volume. That means its CEO, Elon Musk, has to continue coming up with new ideas and gimmicks to keep the public impressed.

This week, he came up with a special vehicle mode that would improve the vehicle’s usability while parked. But we can’t exactly tell if it’s a good idea or a bunch of meaningless fluff. Dubbed by Musk as “party & camper mode,” the setting would allow drivers to maintain in-car airflow, regulate the temperature, play music, charge devices, and have access to lighting for up to 48 hours.

There’s no timeline for the feature, but it would likely be done through via over-the-air updates, meaning it could be applied to every Tesla vehicle currently on the road.  (Read More…)

Tesla announced Wednesday that it lost $743 million in the second quarter of 2018, instantly pushing the automaker’s stock up by nearly double digit figures. No, this particular tidbit isn’t what investors hoped to hear, but CEO Elon Musk, who, unlike in past weeks, made it through the day without saying something overtly controversial, told them enough of what they wanted to hear.

The company’s revenue is up by over a billion dollars compared to the same quarter a year ago — $4 billion as a pre-tax total. Cash on hand was the lowest Tesla’s seen in two years ($2.2 billion), but the automaker’s reduced cash burn impressed some skeptics and reassured believers in Musk’s pledge to return to a positive cash flow in the third and fourth quarters. Having achieved its 5,000-Model-3s-per-week production goal, Tesla claims volume will crank up to 6,000 per week by late August. 10,000 per week comes in 2019.

There was even an apology from Musk for his bizarre behavior during a May earnings call, in which he snubbed analysts while acting like a bored teenager.

And did you know the Model 3 outsells all premium midsize sedans combined? Yeah, about that… (Read More…)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has returned to Twitter, this time to issue an apology to British cave diver Vernon Unsworth. Musk had maintained radio silence on the social media platform ever since calling the Thailand cave rescuer a “pedo” in response to comments Unsworth made about the viability of his hastily prepared mini-sub. Musk later added that he’d bet money that his accusation was true.

The weekend tweets were subsequently deleted.

Yes, it’s a wholly ridiculous situation, but imagine yourself in Unsworth’s shoes. The diver claimed he received calls from lawyers in the UK and United States, and was considering legal action against Musk upon his return to Britain. Meanwhile, major Tesla investors entertained their own thoughts — troubling ones, as Musk’s out-of-the-blue attack on a man widely regarded as a hero raised serious questions about his leadership. (Read More…)

There’s a term in Canadian politics — “bozo eruption” — that, according to Wiktionary, refers to the moment when a politician or public figure says something “especially ill-considered and foolish, and which has negative repercussions for that individual and for his or her affiliated group.”

In Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s case, the eruptions seem to be ramping up. Each outburst — be it May’s dismissive earnings call, in which he called analysts’ queries “boring” before taking questions from a YouTuber, or this past weekend’s bizarre assertion that one of the Thailand cave rescuers (and Musk mini-sub disliker) is a pedophile — has a negative, if hazy, impact on the automaker’s stock price.

The most recent utterance didn’t disappoint, but it seems that pissing off Wall Street types is more consequential than accusing international heroes you’ve never met of sex crimes. (Read More…)

Morning! How was your weekend? Good? Hope so. I caught up on some sleep after a week-long bout of insomnia, and many of you probably enjoyed backyard barbecues and romantic encounters and car shows under the hot July sun.

Consider yourself lucky. You could have had a weekend like the driver of this spankin’ new Tesla Model 3 — or the man behind the car’s badge.  (Read More…)

That’s the question being asked by a bevy of cynical journalists and industry observers after Tesla CEO Elon Musk regailed his Twitter audience with descriptions of the automaker’s upcoming pickup truck last night. How does a heavy-duty 240-volt power outlet sound? Self-levelling suspension? Hmm?

At the same time, Tesla’s Design Studio announced revised pricing for the dual-motor Model 3 and its Performance variant. Remaining Model 3 reservation holders were also told they would soon get the opportunity to configure their long-awaited vehicles.

Either the big tent’s working out just great and production is well on track, or there’s something investor-rattling coming down the pipe. (Read More…)

Tesla’s efforts to scale back its workforce will significantly impact its solar roof business. Its 9 percent staffing cut reportedly translates into the closing of roughly a dozen facilities in the United States. The company got into selling photovoltaic shingles after acquiring SolarCity for $2.6 billion. At the time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who previously served as chairman of SolarCity’s board of directors, called the purchase a “no brainer.”

The theory was that the new business would be synergistic. Customers could accumulate energy through solar roofs, store it in a Tesla Powerwall, and use it to recharge their vehicle, power their home, or supplement their energy needs during peak hours. But earlier this month Tesla announced it was pulling those products out of stores and abandoning its partnership with Home Depot. Customers will now buy their solar energy products through Tesla stores and the company’s website.

What happened? (Read More…)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be on the hunt for potential saboteurs and thieves. However, as the company doubles down on Model 3 assembly both inside its Fremont, California plant and the tent erected outside, a murky sideshow has emerged.

On Sunday night, Musk emailed employees to alert them to the actions of a saboteur caught hacking the automaker’s manufacturing operating system (MOS), cautioning them to be on the lookout for other nefarious deeds. The automaker then filed a lawsuit against process technician Martin Tripp, who Tesla alleges stole several gigabytes worth of data from the MOS and funnelled the info, which included photos, to shadowy third parties. Incorrect statements were also made to the media by the disgruntled employee, Tesla claims, and it’s now seeking its pound of flesh (as well as its data, plus punitive damages) via the suit.

Tripp’s now telling his side of the story. Oh, and there’s a workplace shooting threat to toss into the mix, too. (Read More…)