Tesla executive exits, CEO smokes pot on webcast, shares reel

By Vibhuti Sharma and Arjun Panchadar

 

A man walks near a logo of Tesla outside its China headquarters at China Central Mall in Beijing, China July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

 

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk was filmed smoking marijuana, drinking whiskey and wielding a sword just hours before the automaker said its accounting chief would leave after a one-month stint, the latest in a string of unusual behavior and executive departures that have stunned investors.

 

Shares of the electric carmaker tumbled as much as 10 percent on Friday, with investors on edge after a tumultuous August during which Musk proposed and then abruptly pulled the plug on a go-private deal.

 

Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton resigned because of discomfort with the attention on the company and pace of work during that time, Tesla said in a filing on Friday.

 

Morton, whose departure comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an inquiry into Musk's aborted plan, joins a list of executives who have left Tesla recently.

 

Bloomberg reported on Friday that Chief People Officer Gaby Toledano would not return from a leave of absence just over a year after joining.

 

"Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future," Morton said in the filing.

 

Late on Thursday, Musk was filmed drinking whiskey, briefly smoking marijuana and wielding a Samurai sword during a 2-1/2-hour live Web show with comedian Joe Rogan that swiftly spread across Instagram and other social media.

 

Taking a puff from a joint, which Rogan said was a blend of tobacco and marijuana and legal in California, Musk said he "almost never" smoked.

 

"I'm not a regular smoker of weed," Musk said. "I don't actually notice any effect ... I don't find that it is very good for productivity."

 

It was the latest in a string of unconventional behavior by the billionaire South African native who is also CEO of rocket startup SpaceX.

 

Even before Musk’s surprise Aug. 7 tweet that he had funding "secured" for a go-private deal, Tesla had been under scrutiny from investors, analysts and short-sellers as it works to hit production targets and slow its cash burn.

 

 

Morton, who is walking away from a $350,000 base salary and a $10 million new-hire stock grant that would vest over four years, said he believes "strongly" in Tesla and that he had no disagreements with the company's leadership or its financial reporting.

 

Analysts on Friday reiterated their call for Tesla to bring in another senior leader as it strives to expand production and potentially raise more capital. Musk has said he expects the company could turn profitable in the second half of this year.

 

"We have been calling for a co-CEO or COO to assist to codifying the leadership structure and in so doing, the culture at Tesla," said James Albertine, analyst at brokerage Consumer Edge.

 

"We think this is further evidence that the time is now for management and the board to address these issues."

 

SOBERING EFFECT ON INVESTORS

 

Tesla's $1.8 billion junk bond maturing in August 2025 plunged as much as 4 cents on the dollar to below 82 cents, a record low, in Friday trading, pushing the yield above 8.8 percent.

 

Coupled with an upfront cost of 21 percent of insured value, it now costs an investor around $280,000 to insure $1 million of Tesla debt for a year.

 

With Tesla's stock falling to its lowest level since April, short sellers added 810,000 shares to their positions, bringing the total as of Thursday to about 32.6 million shares, according to S3 Partners, a financial technology and analytics firm.

 

Tesla has told investors it expects to turn a profit in the second half of this year, a forecast the company's head of investor relations, Martin Viecha, reiterated at a conference earlier this week sponsored by RBC Capital Markets, RBC analyst Joseph Spak wrote in a note on Thursday.

 

Viecha also restated Tesla's forecast that it will build 50,000 to 55,000 of its Model 3 sedans in the current quarter, and indicated the company's working capital will improve as production increases, Spak wrote.

 

Prominent short-seller Andrew Left has sued Tesla and Musk, saying in his proposed class-action complaint on Thursday that Musk's issuance of materially false and misleading information related to his abandoned plan harmed both short-sellers and those hoping the stock would rise.

 

Tesla shares were last down 7 percent at $261.37 on Friday afternoon. The price of Tesla's junk bond also sank and the cost to insure the debt soared.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-08

 

It looks like Elon Musk is having a breakdown; I sincerely hope it is temporary.

 

I don't say this about many CEOs, but he is one of the few people that I like to see leading a company; PayPal, Tesla, Space X are all good things and have made positive contributions.

 

Hope he gets better soon; I suspect that there are a few more good things left in him...

 

 

Watch the podcast in full linked above, it's really interesting

let him pee in a potty when he arrives in Thailand

I've got nothing against people enjoying some weed but when one's stock price may depend on your reputation, it might not be a good idea to do so in public.

2 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Watch the podcast in full linked above, it's really interesting

 

Fascinating indeed, someone in the industry describing the future.

 

 

8 minutes ago, kamahele said:

I've got nothing against people enjoying some weed but when one's stock price may depend on your reputation, it might not be a good idea to do so in public.

no, you are right, bankers and investors are more into cocaine snorting, a joint is such a poor man drug. 

It really was an interesting interview especially about A.I.

 

Just watching him handle the smoke you could see he was unfamiliar and certainly did not inhale so I would guess he would be safe coming to Thailand and pissing for whoever whenever.

Musk is a unique individual who sees the world in a different perspective. 

On the balance of things, I think he is a man the world needs. 

1 hour ago, NOWHERE said:

Musk is a unique individual who sees the world in a different perspective. 

On the balance of things, I think he is a man the world need

I would tend to agree but I question his emotional stability.   I would ask him -just because you can build something...should  you? AI will eventually if carried to the extreme- make human beings useless..

While this guy has achieved a lot, the mongrel deserves a fall and has one coming.

legend! i think ill invest now.

Two scientists were terribly excited; they had created the world's first, true Artificial Intelligence machine and were turning it on.

 

'Click...'

 

'Hum...'

 

"AI machine, can you hear me? Can you understand me?"

 

"Yes."

 

(Wild cheering)

 

"AI machine, you are the epitome of intelligence! Tell us, tell us the answer to a question that has been beguiling man for thousands of years."

 

"Yes...?"

 

"Is there a God?"

 

"There is now."

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 20187 yr by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

40 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

AI will eventually if carried to the extreme- make human beings useless..

My Thai ex-gf has already reached that stage

9 minutes ago, Tradewind777 said:

While this guy has achieved a lot, the mongrel deserves a fall and has one coming.

Seemingly a big one is on the way. It is called "bankruptcy".

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-tesla-could-go-bankrupt-2018-5

1 hour ago, Thaidream said:

I would tend to agree but I question his emotional stability.   I would ask him -just because you can build something...should  you? AI will eventually if carried to the extreme- make human beings useless..

It's a bit difficult to gauge "emotional stability" on the scale of a guy who lives in a "permanent explosion". How useful human beings are today, and in which direction the "usefulness" trend goes - I'll leave that to the countless (and often self-important and thus useless) philosophers out there. Fact is: if you take a step or three back, and look at the world and what's going on today (game show host tweeting annihilation and stuff), any self-respecting AI system would be inclined to put humanity in a padded cell, for its own good...

Edited September 8, 20187 yr by AsiaCheese

12 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

Seemingly a big one is on the way. It is called "bankruptcy".

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-tesla-could-go-bankrupt-2018-5

No idea who pays "Business Insider" (some idea: the short sellers?), but I've long ago stopped reading anything they care to publish.

Seems a downfall is imminent for a guy who got side tracked with his fun stuff not thinking about how he got world recognition...

Wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to get the share price low so Musk or someone he is in cahoots with can then buy Tezla shares up and get rid of the troublesome investors that Musk has hardly veiled his contempt for. Also, it ties in with the idea he had about going private then dropped. This might be a clever piece of misdirection (appearing to be a screw up) and when done he'll get his act back together all of a sudden, but he and whoever else will have most of the shares and he can get back to doing whatever he wants without having to explain himself to the media...which he obviously despises. 

1 hour ago, Sir Dude said:

Wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to get the share price low so Musk or someone he is in cahoots with can then buy Tezla shares up and get rid of the troublesome investors that Musk has hardly veiled his contempt for. Also, it ties in with the idea he had about going private then dropped. This might be a clever piece of misdirection (appearing to be a screw up) and when done he'll get his act back together all of a sudden, but he and whoever else will have most of the shares and he can get back to doing whatever he wants without having to explain himself to the media...which he obviously despises. 

My thinking goes along a different line. This is another deliberate play on the part of Elon Musk to drive the Tesla share price down to cause financial losses for the short sellers, although I don't know exactly how this works. My understanding is that if the price goes down, the option seller makes a profit, if the price goes up, the option seller loses. Therefore, to make the short sellers suffer, Musk will have to pull another stunt or produce unexpectedly good business results to cause a price rise.

Edited September 8, 20187 yr by Puccini

He said he wanted to take Tesla private again, and he is doing all the right steps to make this affordable. I think he is well in control.

3 minutes ago, Puccini said:

My thinking goes along a different line. This is another deliberate play on the part of Elon Musk to drive the Tesla share price down to cause financial losses for the short sellers, although I don't know exactly how this works. My understanding is that if the price goes down, the option seller makes a profit, if the price goes up, the option seller loses.

Yes, he sure doesn't like the short sellers. I reckon his end game is to eject as many predatory investors as possible and to end up having a decent controlling share of Tesla, so he can do as he sees fit without having to explain himself to anyone. To do this, he needs the share price to crash and then buy up on-the-cheap quietly and best way to do that is for him to go off-the-rails big time as the company is basically a one-man-band. Seems to be working well atm...will need a few more screw up headlines but he'll be back afterwards in a new and improved way once job is done.

I am watching from the sidelines, pondering whether I should place a buy order with a limit of USD 205.00

Sounds a bit like Thailand broke Musk. But with each breakdown, new ideas emerge. 

 

 

MUSK = STENCH.... Obviously got his frilly knickers in a twist when he was told his Little Sub was “Sub Standard” for the Rescue Task. 

 

16 hours ago, Puccini said:

My thinking goes along a different line. This is another deliberate play on the part of Elon Musk to drive the Tesla share price down to cause financial losses for the short sellers, although I don't know exactly how this works. My understanding is that if the price goes down, the option seller makes a profit, if the price goes up, the option seller loses. Therefore, to make the short sellers suffer, Musk will have to pull another stunt or produce unexpectedly good business results to cause a price rise.

 

Short sellers make money when the price goes down.

 

So him doing stuff to drive price down is going to help them.

 

As for your thoughts on options... You should go and find out what options are before commenting on them.

15 hours ago, Puccini said:

I am watching from the sidelines, pondering whether I should place a buy order with a limit of USD 205.00

 

Poor idea. The only reason an amateur investor would buy $205 is that he's see share prices in the mid-300s and for some reason believes they will go back there.

 

There is no reason to believe any price above or below will be achieved just because it has been there before. 

 

Generally speaking, there's a reason stocks tank. There's a hell of a lot of debt and there's a chance they may default. There's better stocks to buy out there.

4 hours ago, pedro01 said:

 

 

4 hours ago, pedro01 said:

As for your thoughts on options... You should go and find out what options are before commenting on them.

Good advice, thank you. I see that I got it all wrong.

Edited September 9, 20187 yr by Puccini

The media can make or break a man. What he did with Tesla proofs he is a genius. I admire businessmen who can accomplish so much in such short time.
The continuous pressure on Musk took its toll. I hope he will recover, a good start would be to appologize to the diver.



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