Elon Musk tweet wipes $14bn off Tesla's value:
The tweet also knocked $3bn off Mr Musk's own stake in Tesla as investors promptly bailed out of the company.
"Tesla stock price is too high imo," he said, one of several tweets that included a vow to sell his possessions.
In other tweets, he said his girlfriend was mad at him, while another simply read: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light of consciousness."
In 2018, a tweet about Tesla's future on the New York stock market led to regulators fining him $20m and agreeing to have all further posts on the platform pre-screened by lawyers.
Previously:
(2019-04-27) Elon Musk Reaches Settlement in SEC Tweet Battle
(2018-10-06) Elon Musk Isn't on His Twitter Leash Yet, So He's Taunting the SEC
(2018-09-30) SEC Settlement: Elon Musk Resigns as Chairman of Tesla, Stays as CEO, $40 Million in Fines Paid
(2018-09-28) Elon Musk Accused by SEC of Misleading Investors in August Tweet [Updated]
Related Stories
Elon Musk Accused by SEC of Misleading Investors in August Tweet
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of misleading investors when he tweeted that he had funding lined up to take the company private.
The agency said Musk fabricated the claim in his August tweet, which sent Tesla shares higher.
"In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source," the SEC said in complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, less than two months after Musk's tweet.
The suit seeks an order from a judge barring Musk from serving as an officer or director of a public company, a request often made in SEC lawsuits, as well as unspecified monetary penalties.
Shares fell about 10 percent in after-hour trading on news of the lawsuit. The company, which wasn't sued, and an attorney for Musk didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The SEC has scheduled a press conference for 5 p.m.
The complaint: 1:18-cv-8865 (alt source).
Current (delayed) stock quote: TSLA.
Also at the BBC, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, c|net, and Ars Technica.
[Update: added 20180928_141312 UTC]
The CNBC is reporting Tesla's Musk pulled the plug on a settlement with the SEC at the last minute:
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk will pay $40 million to settle SEC case
Tesla and Chief Executive Elon Musk have settled a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that alleged the outspoken businessman misled investors about his prospective effort to take the electric-car company private.
Musk and the Palo Alto company agreed to pay a total of $40 million, and he will give up his chairmanship for at least three years. Musk, however, will remain chief executive and retain a seat on the company's board of directors. Tesla, meanwhile, is required to install an independent chairman and add two new board members, according to terms of the settlement, which the SEC announced Saturday.
Musk and Tesla will each pay $20 million to settle the case; both reached the deal without admitting wrongdoing. The company declined to comment.
The SEC charged Musk with fraud Thursday, alleging that his tweets about taking Tesla private — at $420 a share — were "false and misleading." As part of the lawsuit, it asked a federal court to remove him from the company's leadership and ban him from running a public company.
Also at Reuters.
SEC Settlement announcement.
Previously: Elon Musk Considers Taking Tesla Private
Elon Musk Accused by SEC of Misleading Investors in August Tweet [Updated]
Submitted via IRC for chromas
Elon Musk isn't on his Twitter leash yet, so he's taunting the SEC
On Saturday, Elon Musk settled a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming that he had violated federal securities laws by tweeting that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. Now, days later, Musk has tweeted out a sarcastic message to the SEC:
Just want to [say] that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2018
Musk has long waged a rhetorical war against shortsellers—investors who borrow shares of Tesla in order to profit if the price drops. Here he's suggesting that the agency—whose mission is to protect investors from CEO misconduct—is actually harming the value of Tesla's stock by enforcing securities laws against Musk and Tesla.
[...] Saturday's settlement required Musk to step down as Tesla's chairman, appoint two new independent directors, and pay a $20 million fine. The deal also requires Tesla's board to "establish a new committee of independent directors and put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk's communications." But according to Recode's Teddy Schleifer, that requirement doesn't kick in for 90 days after signing, giving Musk a few more weeks of unfettered tweeting.
[...] The stock market did not seem thrilled about Musk's latest tweet today. After falling 4.4 percent during the regular trading session, Tesla's stock price fell by another two percent in the minutes after Musk tweeted.
The judge overseeing the case has asked Tesla and the SEC to write a joint memo justifying the settlement. It's due next week. Ordinarily, this would just be a formality, but Musk's tweet is certainly not going to help the process go more smoothly.
Elon Musk Reaches Settlement in SEC Tweet Battle:
Elon Musk has reached a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the two parties said in a legal filing on Friday. The new agreement provides much more detailed guidance about when tweets and other public statements by Musk must be approved by Tesla lawyers.
Musk's original deal with the SEC was announced last September. It required Musk to obtain pre-approval for tweets that "contain or could contain" information that's material—legal jargon for information that's significant to shareholders. While the SEC expected Musk to begin regularly clearing tweets with lawyers, Musk interpreted this language as giving him significant discretion to decide for himself which tweets contained material information. As a result, he didn't seek legal review for any tweets in the first few months the agreement was in effect.
[...]Under the new rules, Musk must get a Tesla securities lawyer's sign off on tweets (and other communications) regarding Tesla's finances, its production and delivery numbers, new lines of business, sales projections, proposed mergers, fundraising efforts, regulatory decisions, and several other types of information.
The SEC says that if the judge signs off on these new terms, the SEC will drop its request for Musk to be held in contempt. In other words, the SEC seems to be satisfied with getting Musk to start seeking legal review for his tweets the way the agency thought Musk had been doing since last time. The SEC is not seeking to punish Musk further for his February tweet.
Given how well Elon Musk followed the intent of the prior ruling, I wonder how closely he will follow this ruling?
Previously:
Funding for Tesla to Go Private Could Come From Saudis; Lawsuits and SEC Scrutiny Increase
SEC Reportedly Subpoenas Tesla Over Take-Private Tweet
Tesla Facing Criminal Probe
Elon Musk Accused by SEC of Misleading Investors in August Tweet
SEC Settlement: Elon Musk Resigns as Chairman of Tesla, Stays as CEO, $40 Million in Fines Paid
Elon Musk Isn’t on His Twitter Leash Yet, So He’s Taunting the SEC
Report: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas:
Elon Musk's recent clashes with officials in Alameda County, home of Tesla's Fremont factory, may have given him a heightened sense of urgency to find Tesla's next US factory. On Friday, several news outlets reported that Tesla was narrowing in on a new location to build the Model Y crossover and Tesla's forthcoming Cybertruck.
The reports started with Electrek, a pro-Tesla site whose co-founder Fred Lambert has good connections inside the company. Just before 3pm Eastern time, Lambert reported that Tesla had settled on Austin, Texas as the site of its next factory.
"We are told that the decision for the site is not set in stone since Tesla was apparently given a few options in the greater Austin area," Lambert wrote. "But Musk is said to want to start construction extremely soon and aims to have Model Y vehicles coming out of the plant by the end of the year."
That would be a remarkably short amount of time for any car company to build a new factory from scratch. Last year, it took Tesla almost a year to build its Shanghai factory—and that was considered unusually fast.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:29AM (4 children)
Twitter is srs bsns.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by pkrasimirov on Saturday May 02 2020, @09:17AM
Not only bsns, the whole country is run via twitter.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Nuke on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:07PM (1 child)
No, it just proves that Musk is mentally unstable.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:02PM
Musk is in full control. His believers are unstable! Millions of gossipy morons
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:50PM
That's a big step up from the previous srsl bnns.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:48AM (10 children)
He wasn't wrong... incredibly stupid yes, already been warned about this kind of thing before, but... he wasn't wrong.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:17AM (4 children)
How stupid tho really?
He has a squillion dollars whatever he does. If you had a squillion dollars would you give a crap what The Little Investors do or think? The highest form of entertainment to a squillionaire is sending them into a tizzy when you sneeze or "accidentally" tweet some shit. So share price goes down - ooooh - sooooo seriiiooooussss. I better bahave before the Big Man comes and fines me $1.50.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:45AM (3 children)
Big Man could also come along and remove him from his company or jail him [cnbc.com]. If Trump still thinks Musk, "does good at the rockets" [cnn.com] then not much chance of that happening, I suppose. But if Trump forgets to put sugar in his coffee that morning maybe Musk will be raked over the coals. Such fun at guessing which answer will come out of this administration! But, anyway, the SEC does have considerable power that it almost never uses against corporate officers.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:12AM
Ooooh nooooes am I one of teh bad boyz now? pluueeez let me be a good boy pluuuueeeeeeez
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:54PM (1 child)
As my (small) company was tanking, I was quite relieved when they relieved me of the VP title. Nothing but liability in being an officer, plus: they had been doing just about the opposite of what I said should be done for over a year so I really didn't deserve liability to the shareholders for the direction that was taken.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday May 04 2020, @08:56PM
Good point. This could be an interested way to bail out of corporate management, the problem being that usually when the SEC strikes such deals to avoid prosecution they want the individual off any all all boards they are currently on with a promise to not be involved with any corporate governance for some agreed upon period of time.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:40AM (4 children)
CEOs give guidance to the public all the time, though if it is negative, only if they have to. In this case, Musk even qualified his statement as opinion, which he is entitled to.
The board of any public company that has enough votes to oust a CEO that talks down the stock would probably do so, but I guess that isn't the case with Tesla. He is too big to fail.
From a legal point of view, I wouldn't be surprised if his statement kicked of a holding period for officers. It wouldn't be just if a CEO could talk down the price to buy some shares.
And he is completely right. Tesla makes no profit, yet the stock has shot back to February highs, as if the governor of California shutting down his operations never happened.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:26PM (2 children)
Tesla has been trading based upon magical thinking for years. The management, especially Musk, seem to know fuck all about the business that they're in and decisions seem to be more aimed at pretending to be ahead of things, rather than the reality that they're not dumping products on the market, hoping to keep going long enough that the competition gives up on electric vehicles. The price of the components and the sales price leave very little possibility for them to ever turn a profit, even when their AI isn't killing people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:19PM (1 child)
That last line put an image in my mind of the way that AI really takes over. Forget Terminators, it's little electric buggies mowing down pedestrians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:50PM
Uber is working on that part.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday May 04 2020, @08:59PM
Yes they do give advice all the time. They are also required to have a very solid basis for making any public pronouncements. If Musk has reason, especially one which doesn't profit him, to say what he did then it is all fine. But as a corporate officer he is liable for what he utters. And if it was just a rambling tweet without any tangible and factual basis but his own feelings, one that took money away from shareholders who invested in the company in good faith, then yes he can and should be held accountable.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:51AM (2 children)
Several tweets actually, about the lockdown
https://www.the [www.the] verge.com/2020/4/29/21242102/elon-musk-coronavirus-fascist-shelter-in-place-tesla-covid-19-safety-science
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @06:43PM (1 child)
working link [theverge.com]
i guess this is what happens when you dare speak out against the destruction of the country by seditious forces and useful idiots. I admire him for having the guts to say those things knowing it would cost him big money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @05:59PM
Plus taking out the value of $11bn of others. I wonder if they all admire him too for his guts, or hate them because he is directly responsible for taking that money out of their pockets?
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:23AM (3 children)
A bunch of twitter junkies just sold. Who bought?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:58AM (2 children)
The smarter people.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @06:24AM (1 child)
Not nearly even close.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:21PM
The taxpayer?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Saturday May 02 2020, @06:57AM (11 children)
If your wealth can be ruined by a tweet, then it wasn't real. That's why stock market wealth is complete and utter fucking crap, and why Trump is probably worth a couple hundred million at best. Elizabeth Holmes went from being worth $4 billion personally to peanuts. All based on speculation, and much of that based on bullshit. It's as shallow as Instagram wealth, and based on about as much.
Imagine explaining that to Ghengis Khan. That he came out of the tent one day, raped a bunch of women, but fucked up and said the wrong thing while drunk. Then he lost everything because of it. There would either be laughter, or he would kill the messenger.
Reality is that Tesla and Musk lost no real wealth whatsoever because of the tweet. Same real property exists, same amount of money in coffers, same assets. It's amazing that perception propped up by bullshit can create such fabulous wealth from literally nothing, and then it can disappear just as fast.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Saturday May 02 2020, @09:04AM (10 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 02 2020, @10:22AM (9 children)
So what? Companies do that all the time when they "provide guidance". I think the bigger issues are 1) is it true? and 2) does he profit by that manipulation.
But then, I'd rather the SEC be burned to the ground than impair the speech of corporate officials on twitter. YMMV.
So why shouldn't the CEO say something, if say, they think the stock is way overpriced? Even in the most aggressive interpretations of fiduciary responsibility, it's not the job of the CEO to support short term stock prices.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 02 2020, @10:59AM (1 child)
Given that a business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders, causing the price to drop harms the stockholders' ability to make profit from the stock, it seems a clear-cut violation of the law. So yes, it is indeed the CEO's job to at least not unnecessarily endanger short term stock prices.
However, my mileage would not vary greatly from yours, I think such clauses obligating the above should be struck from the laws, such that there was no law to violate. But they are there, so they should be disinterestedly upheld. Douchebag CEO? Company won't live as long. That perfectly fits in with idealised Capitalism.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Saturday May 02 2020, @11:15AM
Well, it's a lower price now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @11:08AM (6 children)
They raised $2 billion last quarter and forgot to tell investors that it was overpriced before taking their money.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 02 2020, @11:18AM (5 children)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:12PM (4 children)
Things have changed.
No they haven't. They just repeat.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:44PM (3 children)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:08PM (2 children)
That almost made sense
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:12PM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:24PM
Yeah, so? Who said anything about three month business cycles? For them, it's a speed bump, and the government is bailing them out. Like I said, a repeat
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Saturday May 02 2020, @08:12AM (2 children)
You stuck at home: Learn to make bread, binge watch some stuff, teach your children, etc.
Musk stuck at home: Whine about not being able to work, and accidentally Tweet away a few $billion.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:44PM (1 child)
Geez, what offensive privilege. There are people "stuck at home" that are out of work that have to worry where their next meal is coming from, while your lazy ass gets a paid staycation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @04:22PM
Always one to bring people down. Not even people starving want to hear that.
(Score: 1) by purdy on Saturday May 02 2020, @11:57AM (2 children)
It's pretty hard to argue that this tweet doesn't violate the consent decree with the SEC. Does anybody really think that the Designated Securities Counsel for Tesla (the 'tweet babysitter' required by the consent decree) would have approved this tweet? Not running this tweet by the DSC is a violation of the consent decree as well.
The SEC is already pursuing legal action for contempt because of last year's tweet about production levels for solar panels. If nothing else, this tweet strengthens the SEC's case and may lead to additional counts.
But more to the point, what was the benefit to Musk, Tesla or its shareholders? At best, this tweet creates a needless distraction for Musk and the company. At worst (and this is very, very unlikely) it could put Musk in jail or have him barred from serving as an officer at Tesla.
(Score: 1) by purdy on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:01PM
Can't edit, but I missed that the previous contempt charges were settled. But yesterday's tweet is still a violation of that settlement, which requires preclearance from DSC for any public, written communication containing information about:
Tesla’s financial condition, statements, or results, including earnings or guidance
potential or proposed mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, tender offers, or joint ventures
production, sales, or delivery numbers (actual or estimated) that haven’t been shared, or ones that differ from Tesla’s official guidance
new or proposed lines of business unrelated to Tesla’s existing businesses (defined in the filing as “vehicles, transportation, and sustainable energy products)
changes in the status of Tesla’s securities, credit facilities, or financing / lending arrangements
nonpublic legal or regulatory findings or decisions
anything that would require the filing of an 8-K form with the SEC, including changes in control of the company, or to its executive officers and directors
any other topic that Tesla — or a majority of its independent members of the company’s board of directors — believe needs pre-approval
(Score: 1) by Frosty Piss on Saturday May 02 2020, @06:47PM
So Musk pays a small fine. He’s got a lot more where that came from.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by negrace on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:10PM (5 children)
Most likely he was on coke. Local rumours say it was coke + adderall.
Not the first time.
Listen to the last quarterly earnings call. He does sound like a habitual drug user, worse than a few years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:55PM (2 children)
Local rumours? Did Azealia Banks not get offered any LSD again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:55PM (1 child)
Who? And why should I care?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:24PM
Good question. Next story, please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @02:14PM (1 child)
It has been a long time since the guy has spent some time away from it all. This may be true, may not be. But he does appear to be coming apart at the seams a little. He should take some time away from work.
Another possibility, is he is looking for an excuse to leave Tesla, and would rather get the boot, than quit.
Yet another possibility, is that the stock is being used for douchebag gladiator games courtesy of a bunch of mobbed up brokerages again, and he is looking to normalize the curve before the dump. Maybe encourage them to leave his company out of their games for a little while. Personally I'm all for this options. Anything that puts brokers in the poor house, I'm for.
Fourth possibility is his account was hacked.
If the automakers get bailed out again, it would be sensible to use this opportunity for an electric car mandate like the one done by California in the 90's. In that case, Tesla would be positioned as a market leader. If the U.S. wants to throw of its Saudi shackles, this is the time to do it. Might be worth sending a letter to your favourite Congress Critter.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:10PM
Sounds like he's embraced the Kim Jong Un principle that so many other of America's desperate celebrities have embraced: When something like a pandemic gets all the attention, you do something stupid and clownish to try to earn some of that attention back. Musk's dumb tweets, contrived "fake death" hysteria of Kim Jong Un (before he just threatened a missile launch when the world stopped paying attention to him for a month or so), or the just generally pathetic "please pay attention to me" instagram vids a lot of dumb American celebrities are making.
With honest striptease camwhoring there's at least the opportunity to make money.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday May 02 2020, @12:39PM
So what? Isn't a large chunk of the "company value" also just based on Musk being Musk? If it had not been for him personally, and his outspokenness, the value of the company would probably have been a lot lower -- if the company had even existed since it appears most of them are just giant ego-projects to fulfill various dreams of Elon.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:49PM (3 children)
I'll keep on saying it - People in charge of large companies, or worse yet, the USA, should never even come close to Twitter. It is completely insane how people treat it as some kind of official announcement platform, yet use it to post about what they had for lunch or what their cat is doing.
People get sued, loose their jobs, make headlines, get lynched for things they post on Tweeter. Would the same thing happen if they posted the same comment on SoylentNews? For some reason, no.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:57PM
Of course it would. It takes only one visitor to tweet a link to this comment and it's the same story.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:25PM
Would the same thing happen if they posted the same comment on SoylentNews? For some reason, no.
Could be because a hundred million people aren't following. Maybe if it's posted on a SoylentNews Twitter page it might get some notice?
Moral of the story, don't become too popular, and you can say what you want. Strange that you would be the one crucified because too many people listened to you, as if they couldn't help themselves
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2020, @03:41PM
Not at all, literally everything I tweet gets completely ignored, like it isn’t even there
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Vocal Minority on Sunday May 03 2020, @04:43AM
...don't drink and tweet