SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Elon Musk Considers Taking Tesla Private
Elon Musk Makes $82 Billion Gambit to Silence Tesla Critics
Seemingly out of the blue, Elon Musk proclaimed that he might pull his money-losing Tesla Inc. off the market. Taking the electric-car company private at the price he touted would amount to an $82 billion valuation, a monumental sum that left many investors wondering: Is this a joke?
It wasn't.
[...] "The reason for doing this is all about creating the environment for Tesla to operate best," Musk, 47, wrote Tuesday in an email to employees. He said wild swings in the carmaker's stock price are a "major distraction" to Tesla workers, who are all shareholders. And he said that being public "puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long-term."
To take Tesla private, Musk would have to pull off the largest leveraged buyout in history, surpassing Texas electric utility TXU's in 2007. And Tesla doesn't fit the typical profile of a company that can raise tens of billions of dollars of debt to fund such a deal.
[...] "The market doesn't believe him," said David Kudla, the CEO of Mainstay Capital Management, which is betting against Tesla. "His credibility has come into question over a number of things. If this were real, you'd expect the stock to go closer to $420 a share than it has." Most major buyouts also require a trip to the junk bond markets, where Tesla has fallen out of favor.
Tesla Shares Resume Trading, Musk Posts Blog on Why Company Should Go Private
"Tesla resumed trading on the Nasdaq exchange after a nearly two-hour pause on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the company confirmed in a blog post that CEO Elon Musk is considering taking the electric car maker private at $420 per share."
foxbusiness.com/markets/elon-musk-fires-up-tesla-blog-to-explain-idea-of-going-private
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:35PM (8 children)
The real donald trump didn't write that, not once does it complain about immigrants, liberals, or the investigation into his and his family activities.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Sulla on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:40PM (4 children)
Seems more like you don't actually read what the real Donald Trump says or writes. Just because the fake news only report on specific things he says does not mean thats the only things he says.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:29PM (1 child)
"the fake news"
and you are defending Trump
when will the cognitive dissonance reach a harmonic that blows out the neural circuits?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 10 2018, @12:12AM
I reckon they are already blown up, what he's writing is consistent with the hypothesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:52PM
FAKE NEWS, he only whines about his persecution complex 99% of the time!
(Score: 2) by Aegis on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:42PM
FAKE NEWS! [twitter.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:43PM
The saudis are attempting to buy a majority stake, which is why he's doing this desperation move.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:45PM
☆ @realDonaldTrump (6614) ✓ VERIFIED BY 🆂OYLENTNEW🆂. ✔
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:32PM
I didn't write it, that's so true. I quoted it from FOX Business. Very big story there, they have so many articles & video about that one..........
foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/ford-has-no-issues-being-a-public-company [foxbusiness.com]
foxbusiness.com/markets/tesla-shares-down-as-wall-street-digests-take-private-plan [foxbusiness.com]
foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/teslas-elon-musk-is-1-4-billion-richer-amid-talk-of-going-private [foxbusiness.com]
video.foxbusiness.com/v/5819697225001 [foxbusiness.com]
Enjoy!
And many people are saying, let's take our government private!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Alfred on Thursday August 09 2018, @08:58PM (6 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:11PM (2 children)
If he does this, he's likely to run it out of business in the near future. We're not talking about whims here, we're talking about a car company that's being run in a horribly inept way that's dependent upon loans in order to cover the cost of production because the guy at the top has a large mouth and keeps increasing the number of vehicles called for in future time periods without considering how to get there.
Frequently, investors are short sighted and want the profits now, but I don't see that. This looks more like an ego trip to get back at those people shorting the company and probably use some loophole to get the money for less than it's really worth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:34PM (1 child)
Right now they can not make the cars fast enough. Ask ford/bmw/Chrysler/Toyota if they would like to have that problem. Every car they make has already been sold for months. It is a status symbol like the iphone. Not exactly the best car on the road but not exactly the worst either. It is a show off of how much wealth you have. People who buy that sort of thing want to show it off. Rarity and popularity play into that metric.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @03:55PM
And they lose money on each sale due to incompetent management. It's not particularly hard to create a rare car that loses money. They're losing money trying to ramp up production to levels based purely on Musk's ego rather than on targets based on what the engineering and logistical projections allow for.
And the other manufacturers absolutely could have this problem, they're just not that incompetent. Most manufacturers have a carthat would be like that if they sold at a loss.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:41PM (1 child)
BINGO !! The market volatility and short sightedness of day traders, combined with the influence of currency speculation make long term planning and development almost impossible.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-holding-period-for-a-stock [quora.com]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @03:58PM
There's ways of managing that though. Issuing fewer shares for larger sums of money tends to cut down on that sort of thing. Normally dividends do as well, but you have to be profitable and have something resembling a business plan for that to work.
The big problem in this case isn't the shareholders, it's Musk's own ego and ineptitude.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Friday August 10 2018, @01:05PM
You mean Amazon is a whimsy company? Or IBM, or Microsoft, or GM, or ... ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:15PM (15 children)
Why did he say he was going to act at $420 per share? Wouldn't it have been smarter to step up buying shares on the open market if he had plans taking the company private?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday August 09 2018, @09:51PM (1 child)
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052616/top-4-tesla-shareholders-tsla.asp [investopedia.com]
Does he really need to take it private at all? He controls the company to the extent of being able to do things like merge SolarCity into it. He survived [independent.co.uk] a vote to remove him as chariman. And he will get additional shares based on his performance. Seems like he is still running the show and can crush any opposition without buying more shares. All he has to do is successfully fix the company's problems and get production rolling. Why should a guy who tweeted that his company's stock price was too high care about the distraction of "wild swings" in the stock price (which are in many cases avoidable... don't call people "pedos" on Twitter)?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:15PM
I think is objective is to stop quarterly financial reports. He has insulted investors multiple times and probably wants to have zero accountability.
(Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:02PM (12 children)
420? You need me to explain the significance of 420?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:35PM
http://jango-raid.ml/?song_id=1070431&t=113278038&a=Dr._Dre&s=The_Next_Episode [jango-raid.ml]
fucken 🅱laze it 🎄🎄🎄🔥🔥🔥
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:33PM (6 children)
Do YOU know the origin and significance of 420 ? I was in high school in the Bay Area in the 70's and can recall hearing the term long before it ever made the news.
From Wikipedia...
In 1971, five high school students – Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich [4] – in San Rafael, California,[5][6] calling themselves the Waldos[7][8] because "their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school",[9] used the term in connection with a 1971 plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop that they had learned about,[7][10] based on a treasure map made by the grower.[11] The Waldos designated the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time.[9] The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". After several failed attempts to find the crop, the group eventually shortened their phrase to simply "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a codeword that the teens used to mean consuming cannabis.[10]
Mike Edison says that Steven Hager of High Times was responsible for taking the story about the Waldos to "mind-boggling, cult-like extremes" and "suppressing" all other stories about the origin of the term.[12] Hager wrote "Stoner Smart or Stoner Stupid?", in which he attributed the early spread of the phrase to Grateful Dead followers[13] – after Reddix became a roadie for the Dead's bassist, Phil Lesh[4] – and called for 4:20 p.m. to be the socially accepted hour of the day to consume cannabis.[13]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2, Disagree) by J053 on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:43PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:57PM
http://time.com/4292844/420-april-20-marijuana-pot-holiday-history/ [time.com]
While what you speak of is possible don't you think Dylan would have spoken up by now ? This is just my opinion of course, YMMV.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday August 10 2018, @12:29AM (2 children)
April 20 is Adolf Hitlers birthday.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @01:17AM (1 child)
I suggest celebrating in privste, you are already associated too closely with the KKK.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Friday August 10 2018, @05:40AM
I doubt the KKK would give much credit or respect to a half breed Indian like myself. Nor would I associate with an inbred wance like you come off as. I could be misinterpreting something here but I doubt it.
Da-wee-cha-sun coo-sah-oh-na-ah-nit ha-bah-ha-ca-yah-ha-sah wehit
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday August 10 2018, @02:27AM
I think we're parked, man.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @12:42AM (3 children)
He offers to buy for 420. But not everyone wants to sell, hoping that Tesla can do more. Musk spends little money buying from doubters, and raises the share value to 420 from 3xx that it is now.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @01:22AM (2 children)
So if current share holders don't sell, do they become partners in a privately held company? I seem to remember that there are rules for who can buy shares of non-public companies and this isn't open to investors/gamblers of average means.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday August 10 2018, @01:45AM (1 child)
That is a valid and open question, anon. I and a great many others want to own TSLA$, and are not "qualified investors".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @04:21AM
Are you sure you want to gamble on Tesla being able to make cars in high volume? Here's a column from a few weeks ago that comes with many years of experience in the auto industry -- http://www.autoextremist.com/current/2018/7/18/pmd-unplugged-part-iii.html [autoextremist.com]
(Score: 2) by quietus on Friday August 10 2018, @01:12PM
... and in a corner. The way things stand now, Musk has to come up with a buy-out. If he doesn't, it will be market manipulation. If he does -- if he has serious interest of private investors to take the company private -- he's over a barrel now: he has to agree to any offer, terms and conditions those private investors will put forward.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @10:42PM (1 child)
Has anybody actually verified that he actually was the author of that tweet? It may have been his account, but it's twitter. How secure could his account possibly be?
Sufficed to say that sources like Arstechnica are using the opportunity to fling poo. But since their corporate owned by a media company that is walking distance from wall street, it is fair to consider that they are more likely to be involved in SEC violations than Musk is. Probably 50% of their forum posts are probably their own bots. Either that, or bots run by some pump and dumper pals down the street. Nothing personal, but if I was looking to investigate stock manipulation, the forums that are followed by chop shop articles, would be where I would look.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 11 2018, @03:21PM
The BBC ups the anti with Libel. Which is a real thing in the U.K.
At: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45155268 [bbc.com]
They say:
"Elon Musk's bombshell announcement that he is thinking of taking the electric car company Tesla private has landed him a lawsuit from unhappy investors."
Short sellers aren't "investors". They don't own the stock they sell. Funny how every time I see something like this on the BBC, the article isn't signed.