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Tesla Is Said to Be Subpoenaed by S.E.C. Over Elon Musk Tweet (archive)
Federal securities regulators have served Tesla with a subpoena, according to a person familiar with the investigation, increasing pressure on the electric car company as it deals with the fallout from several recent actions by its chief executive, Elon Musk.
The subpoena, from the Securities and Exchange Commission, comes days after regulators began inquiring about an Aug. 7 Twitter post by Mr. Musk, in which he said he was considering converting Tesla to a private company. In the post, he said that the financing for such a transaction, which would probably run into the tens of billions of dollars, had been "secured."
Tesla shares, a popular target for so-called short sellers who bet on certain stocks losing value, soared about 11 percent on the day Mr. Musk posted the message.
It has become clear since then that neither Mr. Musk nor Tesla had actually lined up the necessary financing aside from having preliminary conversations with some investors.
Musk tweeted[*] that he wanted to take Tesla private at $420 a share. Azealia Banks claimed[**] to have been in Musk's home and witnessed Elon Musk tweeting while using LSD and making frantic calls to shore up funding for a take-private attempt. Maybe Azealia Banks will be called to testify by the SEC?
[*] The actual tweets:
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
9:48 AM - 7 Aug 2018Shareholders could either to sell at 420 or hold shares & go private
11:13 AM - 7 Aug 2018
[**] Take Azealia Banks' words with a grain of salt.
Also at Ars Technica, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Bloomberg.
See also: Goldman Sachs says it's advising Tesla
The Real-Life Consequences of Messing Around on Twitter
Previously: Elon Musk Considers Taking Tesla Private
Funding for Tesla to Go Private Could Come From Saudis; Lawsuits and SEC Scrutiny Increase
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by TheReaperD on Thursday August 16 2018, @06:35AM (7 children)
So, instead of drunk texting, it's LSD Tweeting. This is going to be an expensive fuckup and likelly the most expensive dose of LSD Elon Musk will ever take.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16 2018, @06:39AM
i think you're gonna enjoy and be able to profit from that pdf i linked ;)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday August 16 2018, @07:23AM (1 child)
It's very early days into this fiasco and Azealia Banks is one of the worst witnesses you could pick, with a history of beefing with other celebrities to grab attention and making some racist comments (and not just what's cited in the Wikipedia article [lipstickalley.com]).
The improbability of singer-songwriter Azealia Banks getting involved with this stems from Musk's new girlfriend Grimes [wikipedia.org] (Claire Boucher). Banks was supposedly at Musk's house for a musical collaboration with Grimes, and was supposedly waiting around there for about two days, as if that makes any goddamn sense. In her tweet storm, she ended up lambasted Musk for his father's emerald mine wealth [businessinsider.co.za] and claimed that Musk and Grimes wanted a threesome with her.
But while the story is a little crazy, it definitely sounds like it could be true, right? There was that dust-up about Musk (among others) attending what was alleged to be one of Silicon Valley's sex and drug [businessinsider.com] parties [marketwatch.com]. Ashlee Vance's [wikipedia.org] biography of Musk portrays him as "straight-laced" [entrepreneur.com] and not a frequent user of alcohol. But everyone knows that LSD is far safer than alcohol [bbc.com] and Silicon Valley is big on microdosing [businessinsider.com]. Programmers, engineers, and visionaries like Musk are often attracted to the practice.
So in summary, the current year is 2018, year 2 of our lord Trumpu, and everybody is going cray-cray. In stark contrast with the tight ship that is SpaceX (thanks Gwynne Shotwell [bloomberg.com]!), Tesla can't go a quarter without having to suffer from some Musk drama or debt and production issues. Which may be part of the motivation behind going private. I don't have a strong opinion about whether or not Tesla going private would be a good thing. Feel free to make your case.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Thursday August 16 2018, @08:30AM
And now Elon says he hasn't even met her..
https://pagesix.com/2018/08/14/elon-musk-denies-ever-having-met-azealia-banks/ [pagesix.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Insightful) by theluggage on Thursday August 16 2018, @11:40AM (3 children)
Ah, Twitter - all those stupid things human beings say when they're drunk, stoned, upset, lonely or just plain bored - once forgotten by the morning after, now recorded, preserved for posterity, made available to all and mistaken by journalists as a source of news.
This planet should host a Disaster Area concert to drown out all the tweeting...
What's really frightening is the degree of seriousness that some people apply to tweets (buying/selling shares, voting for orange people, etc.)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 16 2018, @12:37PM (2 children)
Twitter is just a medium. Any embarrassment that can be spewed on Twitter could as easily be posted on Facebook or other social media platforms. Twitter potentially has a greater reach, since you can read tweets without logging in. The short form might also encourage dumber behavior, but the character limit has been doubled and you can just write multiple tweets or post a text image anyway.
Your real problem is with human nature and the ability to communicate over the Internet. Anybody can gain an audience of millions, sometimes on accident. And anyone can broadcast whatever is on their mind, with essentially no filter. Tweets being reported as news isn't necessarily any worse than short soundbites being overanalyzed, or official statements (such as short press releases) being reported on.
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(Score: 2) by theluggage on Thursday August 16 2018, @10:04PM (1 child)
True, and of course stupid things are propagated on other media (understatement of the year). However, Twitter in particular does seem to have struck a chord with politicians, celebrities and the media - probably because the short format lets you fire off a soundbite before you've had time to think about it, and it feels ephemeral. Easy to write, easy to scan for gossip.
I mean, even 'RealDonaldTrump' sounds more thoughtful and intelligent when they post here on SoylentNews than they do on Twitter - it's almost like they're an entirely different person entirely... :-)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 16 2018, @10:15PM
So weird! 🗽
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