"Tesla shares fall as CEO admits job stress is getting to him" by Tom Krisher Associated press August 17, 2018
Shares of Electric car maker Tesla Inc. tumbled about 9 percent Friday after CEO Elon Musk conceded in a newspaper interview that job stress may be getting the best of him.
Tesla shares closed at $305.50, their lowest level since Aug. 1, as analysts and business professors questioned whether the company’s board should grant Musk a leave or even replace him with a more seasoned CEO. The decline lopped $5.4 billion off Tesla’s market value.
Preparing the ground for his exit.
Musk admitted to The New York Times that the past year has been the most ‘‘difficult and painful’’ of his career. The newspaper reported that during an hour-long telephone interview on Thursday, Musk alternated between laughter and tears, acknowledging that he was working up to 120 hours a week and sometimes takes Ambien to get to sleep.
That's not the only drug he is taking, according to my sources, and they have a lot more to say about the current turmoil, too ( #233, #266).
‘‘It’s kind of bizarre,’’ said Charles Elson, director of the corporate governance center at the University of Delaware. ‘‘It’s a drama we shouldn’t be watching.’’
Musk told the Times that he has no plans to give up his dual role as chairman and CEO.
‘‘If you have anyone who can do a better job, please let me know. They can have the job. Is there someone who can do the job better? They can have the reins right now,’’ he said.
Maybe he should go hide in a cave because the sight of him is bad for business.
Tesla’s board showed no sign of taking any action Friday. In a statement to The Associated Press, the directors praised Musk’s dedication to the company.
‘‘Over the past 15 years, Elon’s leadership of the Tesla team has caused Tesla to grow from a small startup to having hundreds of thousands of cars on the road that customers love, employing tens of thousands of people around the world, and creating significant shareholder value in the process,’’ the statement said, without addressing Musk’s recent behavior.
The Times interview puts board members in a difficult position because Musk, who entered Tesla as a major investor and built the company into a force that has changed the perception of electric cars, is the company’s public identity.
He gave a self-serving interview to the New York Times, which in turn provided him the platform to put the board in a difficult position.
Nice going, Times, allowing yourself to be used as a tool.
Still haven't learned from Iraq, sigh.
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The SEC got involved because Musk said he was taking Tesla private without any warning or word at all in filings, and the shares soared. The offer is risky, but it has Wall Street $alivating, and Musk said the funding was coming from the Saudis.
Maybe he should jump in Lake to get the stink off:
"Elon Musk’s effort to take Tesla private will be reviewed by company’s board" by Tiffany Hsu and Michael J. de la Merced New York Times August 14, 2018
NEW YORK — Tesla announced Tuesday that its board had created a special committee to review a potential proposal by Elon Musk, the chief executive, to take the company private.
The board, caught by surprise last week after Musk posted a cryptic tweet about having “funding secured” for a possible buyout of the electric carmaker, said it had yet to receive a formal proposal or reach “any conclusion as to the advisability or feasibility of such a transaction.”
The three independent directors who make up the special committee, Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, and Linda Johnson Rice, “have the full power and authority” of the board to evaluate and negotiate any potential transaction to take Tesla private, the company said.
The company stressed Tuesday that “no assurances can be given” that any proposal from Musk would be accepted.
On Monday night, Musk posted on Twitter that he was working with Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs as financial advisers on a proposal to take Tesla private. He also wrote that he had hired two law firms — Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Munger, Tolles & Olson — as legal advisers.
Senior executives of Silver Lake, one of the biggest technology-focused private-equity investors, have known Musk for years and have had him speak at an annual meeting of its portfolio companies on at least one occasion. An arm of the firm, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, had invested $100 million in SolarCity, the solar-power company that Musk cofounded and that is now part of Tesla.
The people would not say when Silver Lake began working with Musk on his plan. A spokeswoman for the investment firm declined to comment.
Tesla’s efforts to wrest the situation from its unpredictable chief executive and cofounder come after Musk declared in a blog post Monday that he had communicated for more than a year with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund about taking the company private. He said he had left one recent meeting “with no question” that a deal with the fund could be closed, though people familiar with the workings of the fund cast doubt on his account Monday.
The blog post appeared to be an attempt to address investors and financiers who were caught off guard by his initial tweet on Aug. 7 announcing that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420.” Such disclosures are usually made in regulatory filings; the tweet led to an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission about Musk’s choice of forum.
Oh, he stepped in it their and brought this all on himself.
In his blog post, Musk said that “the right thing to do was to announce my intentions publicly” to all shareholders, but according to people familiar with the situation, Musk told an informal adviser that he had posted on Twitter impulsively and as an angry reaction to the company’s critics.....
He needs to lay off the coke and log off.
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Remember when they were cheering him on even as he was advising to sell?
UPDATE:
Tesla buyout drama obscures progress on Musk’s crucial Model 3
He rules by Fiat.
Remember when they were cheering him on even as he was advising to sell?
UPDATE:
Tesla buyout drama obscures progress on Musk’s crucial Model 3
He rules by Fiat.
