Thread: Elon Musk - going private is one way to avoid the intense scrutiny of (the) public

Damn, should a title be all caps?

closed today at 264.

"funding secured" usually doesn't lead to a 30% haircut.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Elon Musk sued over alleged fraud after 'funding secured' tweet

Ray ... you really are a dick.

Elon Musk to step down as Tesla chairman in $55 million lawsuit settlement

Elon Musk and his electric car company Tesla have agreed to pay a total of $US40 million ($55 million) to settle a US government lawsuit alleging Mr Musk duped investors with misleading statements about a proposed buyout of the company.

The settlement will also require Mr Musk to relinquish his role as chairman for at least three years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement just two days after filing a case seeking to oust Mr Musk as CEO.

However, the deal reached allows Mr Musk to remain as chief executive.

...one smackdown accomplished...up next: the defamation suit...

jesus, what an idiot. He got lucky. Maybe next board meeting, he won't

He's a dishonest piece of shit. He might be bright, but he's deliberately misled and stolen money off people that have invested in him. Having a breakdown...my arse.He knows exactly what he is doing. He's a bit like Trump, only smarter.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

So the SEC big attempt of ousting Elon Musk as Tesla CEO has utterly failed. The investors stood by him firmly and the bargain of him stepping down temporarily from chairman of the board while staying on the board is just some face saving for the SEC.

You can take that as proof that the SEC had little to nothing on him. Otherwise they would have gone through with the court case.

If they'd removed him as CEO the shares would have tanked.

Hardly good oversight.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

So the SEC big attempt of ousting Elon Musk as Tesla CEO has utterly failed.

the SEC didn't want to 'oust' him. by walking away from the deal earlier in the week, he left them no choice but to pursue it.

and let's not lose sight of the fact that he violated the law by making false statements and not notifying the SEC of important company events....imagine if without notice every CEO could say he/she was taking the company private for a higher than market price....and it was all BS.... it would be chaos.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

You can take that as proof that the SEC had little to nothing on him.

this makes no sense whatsoever.

what they 'had' on him was him saying "funding secured" at "420". what else would they need?

funding was not secured by any stretch of the imagination...but the stock popped and anyone who was short got screwed. i personally don't generally have any sympathy for short sellers, but you can't have people brazenly manipulating markets like this.

he needs to pay his 20 million, step away from the day-to-day of running tesla, and get professional psychiatric help.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

So the SEC big attempt of ousting Elon Musk as Tesla CEO has utterly failed. The investors stood by him firmly and the bargain of him stepping down temporarily from chairman of the board while staying on the board is just some face saving for the SEC.

You can take that as proof that the SEC had little to nothing on him. Otherwise they would have gone through with the court case.

From here it looks like they wanted to nick a few million $$. Nothing wrong with that, happens all the time, every conglomerate is guilty of cutting corners in breach of some law/reg or other, regulators keep tabs and note who's doing what, pick an occasional example or two to roast, often politically based, validates their existence, more money to redistribute, cheaper to pay up than fight because well you did breach some regs and you don't want us up your ass with a microscope so let's talk numbers, fines written off against tax, stockholders bitch a bit but fines are never enough to hurt, just a temp divi blip and everyone gets on with it as before.

/cynicism

Originally Posted by raycarey

the SEC didn't want to 'oust' him. by walking away from the deal earlier in the week, he left them no choice but to pursue it.

and let's not lose sight of the fact that he violated the law by making false statements and not notifying the SEC of important company events....imagine if without notice every CEO could say he/she was taking the company private for a higher than market price....and it was all BS.... it would be chaos.

He made a statement that he "may" take Tesla private, "funding is secured". Which was true except there was no signed deal. He was able to put actually 2 different deals on the table within days. One with the Saudis and one with Volkswagen involved. But he did not go through with any of them. Mostly because it was not needed. The big shareholders had reassured him that they are in for the long haul, no matter what the short term share value fluctuations are.

Originally Posted by raycarey

this makes no sense whatsoever.

what they 'had' on him was him saying "funding secured" at "420". what else would they need?

funding was not secured by any stretch of the imagination...but the stock popped and anyone who was short got screwed. i personally don't generally have any sympathy for short sellers, but you can't have people brazenly manipulating markets like this.

he needs to pay his 20 million, step away from the day-to-day of running tesla, and get professional psychiatric help.

He needs to stay on as CEO and steer Tesla into the future.

I agree that he may need to make one step backwards and be less involved in the details. They have restructured the Tesla leadership to enable to do just that.

The basics are that the SEC made unwarranted noises, offering him a "deal" out of court that would have required him to step down as CEO and put Tesla in turmoil, with share prices tumbling, supporting the Tesla short sellers. Elon kicked their ass, telling them what they can do with that offer. This left them with the choice to go home or open a court case. They filed a court case and immediately made a new offer for off court settlement. This time to step down only as chairman of the board, a much less important post than CEO. He even stays on the board, just not as chairman.

Comments in the media are that this is a most unusual step by the SEC. If they had anything against him they would force him to step down as CEO.


Having said that, I agree that he should not have made the funding remark.

Originally Posted by Begbie

If it is a stunt then he's committed a criminal offense. Could be a desperate move to shake off the Chinese government who currently hold 5% of Tesla shares and may be looking to take over.

I'm no fan of Musk but I definitely doubt the Chinese have the lion's share of the current mess he's in.

His $420 price was an affront.

Following the money wouldn't surprise me if higher powers are looking for some way to slip, coerce or otherwise strong arm that renewable energy Gore guy onto the Tesla board.

The Musk fanboys will really have to dig deep to spin this ...so Musk can still be their special "Genius".