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posted by chromas on Thursday May 03 2018, @08:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the Don't-you-worry-about-blank.-Let-me-worry-about-blank dept.

Tesla's stock dropped despite "better than expected" quarterly numbers, probably due to either the company posting its worst quarterly loss ever, or a conference call in which Elon Musk complained about "boring, bonehead questions" and much more:

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk held a long, odd earnings conference call Wednesday in which he insulted analysts, the media, federal regulators and people who died behind the wheel of his cars, and then told anyone concerned about volatility not to invest in his company. Unsurprisingly, volatility ensued, as Tesla shares dropped quickly during an increasingly bizarre call with the very analysts and media whom Musk attacked.

Tesla on Wednesday disclosed the largest quarterly loss in the history of a company known far and wide for losing vast sums of money, with a net loss of almost $785 million. The numbers still managed to beat expectations that have been repeatedly lowered for more than a year, which led Musk to take a victory lap on Twitter after losing more than three quarters of a billion dollars in three months.

It only got weirder from there. In his conference-call introduction, Musk confused per-week and per-day production figures, described a "super complicated" robot Tesla designed and built before realizing it could not perform its unnecessary function, then mentioned offhandedly that he planned to restructure the company this month — a disclosure he never revisited to provide more information.

When the question-and-answer session started, Musk turned vitriolic, and not even his fellow executives were safe. After Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja referred to Tesla as "best in class" for batteries while responding to an analyst query, he was interrupted by Musk. "The best. It is not a class," Musk interjected. "Yes, we're the best. Sorry," Ahuja replied. "The best in a class of one," Musk made sure to point out.

The company's Nevada "Gigafactory" is now producing vehicular battery packs at a rate of 3,000 per week.

Also at CNBC and Reuters.

See also: Opinion: Why I'll keep shorting Tesla's stock, and not just because of that earnings call

Tesla to Report Q1 2018 Earnings Amid Doubts About the Company's Future

Tesla will report its first quarter earnings at the end of the day on May 2. The company needs some good news:

The company that Elon Musk built to usher in the electric-car future might not have enough cash to make it through the calendar year. The anxieties that lurk beneath the tremendous ambition of Tesla Inc. moved into the forefront in recent weeks. The company again fell far short of its own production targets for the mass-market Model 3 sedan, another person died in a crash involving its assisted-driving feature and Musk entered into a public dispute with federal safety regulators. Tesla's once high-flying stock, buffeted by a downgrade from credit analysts, has dropped 24 percent from its peak in September.

There's a good reason to worry: No one has raised or spent money the way Elon Musk has. Nor has any other chief executive officer of a public company made a bankruptcy joke on Twitter at a time when so much seemed to be unraveling.

Tesla is going through money so fast that, without additional financing, there is now a genuine risk that the 15-year-old company could run out of cash in 2018. The company burns through more than $6,500 every minute, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Free cash flow—the amount of cash a company generates after accounting for capital expenditures—has been negative for five consecutive quarters. That will be a key figure to watch when Tesla reports earnings May 2.

Tesla has just been sued by Nikola Motor Company for patent infringement. Tesla is accused of copying the design of Nikola's hydrogen semi trucks; Tesla says that Nikola's claims are without merit.

Elon Musk says don't worry about Tesla's burn rate—he might be right

Related: Tesla Burns More Cash, Fails to Meet Production Targets
Tesla Sued Over Alleged Racism; Deliveries Pushed Back; Semi Truck to be Unveiled
Elon Musk's Monstrous, Enormously Large Compensation Package


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @08:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @08:22PM (#675288)

    Enron Musk [businessinsider.com]