SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Tesla to fire 9% (almost one in ten) of its workforce:
El Reg has a compelling between-the-lines reading
Tesla is cutting nine per cent of its workforce in a "comprehensive organizational restructuring", according to an internal email sent by its CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday.
While that email was sent only to employees, Musk then tweeted the full text immediately afterwards and it is clear that the missive was designed to be read by external critics and worried investors.
[...] It goes on: "As part of his effort, and the need to reduce costs and become profitable, we have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9 per cent of our colleagues across the company."
The email then shifted in tone and notes that the cuts will not impact the company's delayed production schedule for its latest car model: "These cuts were almost entirely made from our salaried population and no production associates were included, so this will not affect our ability to reach Model 3 production targets in the coming months."
[...] Musk addresses that very real issue of running out of money and finding it hard to find people to put in more cash in the last paragraph of his email. But, of course, he can't stop himself from doing so in typical arrogant fashion, even employing the royal "we" in his apparent recognition of reality.
"Given that Tesla has never made an annual profit in the almost 15 year since we have existed, profit is obviously not what motivates us. What drives us is our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable, clean energy, but we will never achieve that mission unless we eventually demonstrate that we can be sustainably profitable. That is a valid and fair criticism of Tesla's history to date."
The news is the first sign that Musk has had little choice but to respond to his investors' concerns, no doubt because he realizes he will need to go to them again soon for more cash.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 15 2018, @12:19PM (3 children)
And isn't it to be expected? I mean, look...
Musk is firing them boosters at SpaceX again and again (and the valuation of the company goes through the roof. No, SpaceX is not publicly traded)
On the other side, how many times you think Musk can fire a Tesla employee?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday June 15 2018, @12:53PM (2 children)
Funny, but, it's not just TSLA. Some advice if you work for a smaller, but publicly traded company that goes through a massive RIF including yourself: hang on to your company stock until news of the RIF goes public. When I worked at a place with 10 employees, they slashed 9 (just kept the accountant), and when news of that came out to the market the stock price doubled, and stayed up for two quarters running, even with me and the other employees selling it off.
Of course: use At Your Own Risk, YMMV, I am NOT a certified financial anything, your company may not break the news to the market in the same way that mine did, and the market is never guaranteed to react in any particular way to any particular news. This is just a pattern I have observed repeated many times over the past three decades. FWIW, that same company announced 3 510(k) permission to market approvals over the space of 12 years, the first two caused the stock to jump 4x on announcement, the third had no effect - apparently the market had already assumed the 510(k) was going to be approved, explaining the 10x run up in price over the previous year.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:30PM (1 child)
I'm sorry ... a ten-person public company?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 20 2018, @08:12PM
Reverse shell mergers, so hot in 1990.
🌻🌻 [google.com]