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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.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:32AM (3 children)
The guy is off his meds, will end up in prison.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:44AM
Or lose Tesla, Gigafactory & SolarCity (owned by Tesla). He owns SpaceX himself, so SEC can't easily take that away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @03:19AM (1 child)
WTF are you high on? Billionaires don't go to prison, especilaly for financial crimes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @03:44PM
If you piss off too many, they will put you away like Martin Shkreli.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:41AM (11 children)
And anyone who denies Musk has mental problems at this stage of the game is either an idiot or also in the grip of mental illness.
I've been saying Musk was messed up for years. Pretty soon, all the deniers are going to be eating crow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:48AM (1 child)
Everyone who disagrees with me is wroooooong!
Maybe you are the mentally ill one. Plus you're an irrelevant peasant instead of a billionaire.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @08:39AM
"Maybe you are the mentally ill one. Plus you're an irrelevant peasant instead of a billionaire."
.
I bet you'd talk differently after i kicked your balls through the roof of your pointed little skull, you stupid smart mouthed cocksucker.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @02:05AM (3 children)
These latest antics have shown me the light at least. Why is he poking the bear? Only he knows....
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:42PM (2 children)
He's probably seen the Kavanaugh hearings and Trump's antics and noticed that there's a bunch of dumb asses out there that will fall for it.
Kavanaugh is likely to be the confirmed despite completely lacking the temperament and qualifications to serve as an associate justice. He can't even get through a hearing without perjuring himself in a transparent way. And the GOP is completely fine with that, even with the fact that there are credible allegations of sexual assault that still haven't been investigated.
That should really be of great concern to anybody that understands the role of the court. Unfortunately, the GOP has spent decades chipping away at our democracy until we got to the point where elections fraud is no longer something that we care about. Having large numbers of voters disenfranchised because they're not voting the right way is A-OK for the GOP voters. Having completely incompetent judges appointed is also OK, I had hoped that they cared about at least the public image of the court, but nobody in their right mind is going to take a court seriously that has a sexual predator sitting on it.
My guess is that this is what Musk is doing counting on the numerous inbred hicks voting GOP to save him. People who think it's a good thing that Trump is deliberately destroying what's left of our democracy for personal gain, even if it craters the country in coming years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07 2018, @07:18PM (1 child)
Hasn't spent enough time taking a good hard look at just how fucked up both American society and our duopolist partisan political system have become. Both parties need to be purged from the system just like they should have been ~150+ years ago when they were founded as the Democratic-Republican party.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07 2018, @11:03PM
Enjoy your nap, Rip? It is now 2018, not 1942.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @03:09AM
Or, maybe Musk is thinking about running for US President, and is just trying to act the part.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday October 06 2018, @09:12AM (3 children)
- as a Troll.
I am bipolar. The stunts I pull when Manic are just like those musk pulls when he's Manic
I know lots of Bipolar people. They're all just musk when Manic. We just don't get any press because we don't have that kind of cash
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @04:04PM
So basically, Musk only started spending money on self-driving rockets because... he ran out of dirty magazines to buy before he ran out of money to spend?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @07:59PM (1 child)
Have you ever made a post that isn't all about you? Your biggest mental illness is narcissism.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday October 07 2018, @01:24AM
It's All About MEEEEEEEEEEEE! [warplife.com]
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:47AM
Good job there Elon! As we all know, when a pack of dogs snap at you, the proper response is to kick one again. They will totally stop, rather than get enraged or want revenge.
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Saturday October 06 2018, @02:13AM (1 child)
There is room for improvement, he still have not reached the level of McAfee ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @02:32AM
Sad, but insightful. I still say he ends up covered in kleenex boxes eating pudding out of saran wrap...but I hope I'm wrong.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday October 06 2018, @03:11AM (4 children)
Well that was real stupid of Musk to make another tweet like that. Among other things, now this drop in stock value and enriching of short sellers is his fault.
Also shows he didn't accept the lesson. What's with this furious refusal to admit to making a mistake that's become a principle so dearly held by so many people, especially those of conservative bent? Do they feel they are perfect?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Saturday October 06 2018, @03:45AM
Not necessarily. I can't recall the name of the person involved, nor the companies, but he was a middle name CEO at the time who'd come in the news with his antics -- clearly he had become a liability for his then company. To which an older, more experienced, colleague at Siemens replied that that was typical, this guy has a pattern of doing just that: first drive the stock price up, negotiate a very good severance package, than start making trouble. The company is better of with paying him his millions, and letting him hop to the next company.
This might make sense with Musk too: at [what leaked out of] his last pay negotiation the focus was on the bonuses he'd get when hitting nearly impossible goals. A nice diversion, eagerly lapped up by investors as a sign of how much their stock holdings could further rise. Maybe the press should have focused on his severance, instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @04:30AM (2 children)
The Tesla stock price, which is arguably higher than it ever should have been, has a habit of bouncing back up after these sudden drops.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @01:46PM (1 child)
There's a lot of gullible people out there that still believe that the company is on its way to great things. Possibly, but with the way they're spending money like drunken Republicans, it'll be interesting to see if they can stay afloat long enough to start making money.
The answer to that is not likely if Musk is allowed to remain in control and affiliated with the company. Most of the losses are the direct result of his incompetence and arrogance. They could and should have been making a modest profit for quite some time now, the reason they're not is because they're trying to grow way too fast and still can't resist the urge to bite off more than they can chew or hire people that know how these lines work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07 2018, @03:45PM
Tesla's only chance of surviving is through fast growth. Going slow allows the incumbents to catch up.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday October 06 2018, @07:15AM (2 children)
That taking private post is just like something I would do if I got Manic while heading up a big public company
While uncommon, some manic depressives are Manic all the time, some get depressed only rarely
Peer reviewed studies have verified for decades that manic depressives really _are_ uncommonly creative. Consider that I improvise - make music up as I play - on the piano and write a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction. I also draw.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 06 2018, @12:29PM (1 child)
When I was getting started, I did some projects for the manic/depressive (bipolar) founder and CEO of a local midsize company. This was a highly rated supplier to both aerospace and industrial manufacturers, probably a few thousand employees back then. When he was up, it was amazing how productive he was, and how much of a spender--he had Ferrari or Porsche cars stashed in hotel car parks in several countries where the company had a factory. When he was down, it was a good thing that he had hired very competent managers, because he did effectively nothing, not even take care of personal hygiene. The cycle time could be several months and this seemed to get longer as he aged.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday October 06 2018, @08:01PM
I'm going to give check signing authority to a trusted friend
I have always avoided management however it to jobs I was forced to be a manager. At both jobs I was ordered to fire a friend. They both really needed to be fired but even so I still feel bad about it decades later
In 2020 I'll hire a CEO then step down from management
http://soggy.jobs/crowdfunding/2018/08/21/ [soggy.jobs]
My indiegogo campaign will launch Wednesday January 16th. It will enable these three
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by corey on Saturday October 06 2018, @09:45PM
By the comments here, everyone seems so anti Musk. Yeah the investor tweet burnt him. Maybe he learnt a good lesson.
I don't see an issue with this. This is Twitter. It's a silly, petty and humourous tweet that won't result in anything.
Having said that, the news here is that he sent one tweet. Big deal. Most of the story content is background history.
Look at the shit your president tweets every day.