The Left vs The Musk: Teslalicious!

[Shofercia]

I'm no fan of Tesla, and I'm no fan of short sellers, which is why I find this to be rather hilarious: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-mu ... ector.html

Long story short, short sellers submitted an "intriguing" report that made Tesla look bad. Elon Musk retaliated by hooking up with the Saudis, (why wouldn't he hook up with the leaders of the UN Human Rights Council?) and threatened to take his company private. This caused a rise in Tesla stock, and screwed the short sellers. However, it turns out that Musk might've broken a law, or two, or three, or four, and so they're suing him.

The prominent short-seller Andrew Left has sued Tesla Inc and its Chief Executive Elon Musk, saying Musk fraudulently engineered his since-abandoned plan to take Tesla private to "burn" investors hoping the electric car company's stock price would fall. Left, whose reports at Citron Research often push stock prices lower, said in his proposed class-action complaint on Thursday that Musk's issuance of materially false and misleading information harmed short-sellers like himself, as well as those hoping Tesla's stock price would rise.

The shareholder lawsuit is one of at least seven targeting Musk since he stunned investors by announcing on Twitter on Aug. 7 that he might take Tesla private for $420 per share, in a $72 billion transaction for which "funding" had been "secured." That announcement drove Tesla's share price up more than 13 percent from its close the prior day. Musk announced on Aug. 24 that Tesla would stay public. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on Left's lawsuit, which was filed in San Francisco federal court.

Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be lower prices to make profits. Known as an activist investor, Left was among the first short-sellers to challenge Canadian drug company Valeant, which he called a "pharmaceutical Enron" after the failed energy company, before its stock price plunged amid worries about its business practices and regulatory probes. Valeant is now called Bausch Health Companies Inc. Musk has long used Twitter to criticize short-sellers, and Left said his conduct violated federal securities laws.

Thoughts NSG?

After laughing at both sides, I think that Musk is in the wrong here. He used Twitter as a bully pulpit, and is that something that we need to encourage? Also, I think it's karma hitting Musk for his little stunt against the heroic divers. But if Musk wins, I won't feel bad for Left. Will you?

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

As the owner of a Tesla, I have to admit Musk can be rather ridiculous, yes, and I wish he would just friggin' focus on selling the cars. I have to say that this deal of him working like he has been, something like a 100 hours a week, if that's to be believed, has tampered with his ability to think properly. He has said so much shit of late it's actually a nice change of pace to not hear from him for a while.

[Dahon]

Knowing nothing of what the title was talking about, I dove in headfirst with my own assumptions. Needless to say, my assumptions were full of ass.

Oh, and one more thing: short-selling. Educate my economically-challenged mind on this: why isn't such a practice banned or regulated extensively? Malice aforethought of this scale might well bring down the economies of whole countries if the right chips are in place at the right time.

[Pope Joan]

Sounds like a frivolous lawsuit, just designed to keep Musk distracted and more overworked.

If I were the judge, I would see this as game-playing and throw it out

[Proctopeo]

Sounds like a frivolous lawsuit, just designed to keep Musk distracted and more overworked.

If I were the judge, I would see this as game-playing and throw it out

I honestly have to agree here. From what I can find, his claims weren't really "artificial" or "objectively false", rather that it was "investors got cold feet, so he changed his mind". The truthfulness of a statement isn't retroactive, after all.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Sounds like a frivolous lawsuit, just designed to keep Musk distracted and more overworked.

If I were the judge, I would see this as game-playing and throw it out

I honestly have to agree here. From what I can find, his claims weren't really "artificial" or "objectively false", rather that it was "investors got cold feet, so he changed his mind". The truthfulness of a statement isn't retroactive, after all.

He's made quite a few enemies.

[Proctopeo]

I honestly have to agree here. From what I can find, his claims weren't really "artificial" or "objectively false", rather that it was "investors got cold feet, so he changed his mind". The truthfulness of a statement isn't retroactive, after all.

He's made quite a few enemies.

Yes indeed. It is, of course, hard to not make quite a few enemies when you're so high-profile.

[Uxupox]

Knowing nothing of what the title was talking about, I dove in headfirst with my own assumptions. Needless to say, my assumptions were full of ass.

Oh, and one more thing: short-selling. Educate my economically-challenged mind on this: why isn't such a practice banned or regulated extensively? Malice aforethought of this scale might well bring down the economies of whole countries if the right chips are in place at the right time.

And?

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

He's made quite a few enemies.

Yes indeed. It is, of course, hard to not make quite a few enemies when you're so high-profile.

Tesla also makes a few people nervous. However, it's not the high profile that has made him enemies. He was high profile before, but as long as he kept his mouth shut and concentrated on his products, it was ok. In the past year or so, because of his workload and because that has placed a huge strain on the guy mentally, Musk has opened his mouth and shoved his feet down his throat more than once. The latest thing was when he talked shit about the divers that went into that cave in Thailand to rescue the soccer team.

So, add his high profile to this year's shit talking and you get quite a few people very miffed with him. That's not to say that this latest law-suit isn't just BS, but Musk has made quite a few enemies because of things he said too.

[Dahon]

... no, I don't understand, Uxupox. Recessions are a good thing?

[Olthar]

On general principle, I hate rich people. Also, on general principle, I hate stockbrokers. I guess I have no horse in this race.

[US-SSR]

It is a clear violation of US securities law for an officer of a public corporation to make false statements that will affect the price of its stock. afaik the SEC is after Musk, and should be. imo -- not to mention in the opinion of the bond rating agencies who flushed him down to sub-Ukraine levels last spring -- his electric car Ponzi scheme is about to crash and burn just like his rockets. SpaceX = Spending additional cash on our next eXplosion.

[Dahon]

... OK, so why this hate around electric cars all of a sudden?

[Dahon]

Ignore, please.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

It is a clear violation of US securities law for an officer of a public corporation to make false statements that will affect the price of its stock. afaik the SEC is after Musk, and should be. imo -- not to mention in the opinion of the bond rating agencies who flushed him down to sub-Ukraine levels last spring -- his electric car Ponzi scheme is about to crash and burn just like his rockets. SpaceX = Spending additional cash on our next eXplosion.

This is not the first time, however. Accusations of the same kind have been hurled Tesla's way regarding the Model 3. In that case, it was discovered that the person had been fired from Tesla for some sort of problem and he turned ''whistle blower'' out of spite.

There's a lot of short positioning in Tesla stock selling too.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

... OK, so why this hate around electric cars all of a sudden?

Probably because electric cars threaten tradition in car culture (yes, that's a thing), they threaten the fossil fuel market, range anxiety...

[Publica]

It is a clear violation of US securities law for an officer of a public corporation to make false statements that will affect the price of its stock. afaik the SEC is after Musk, and should be. imo -- not to mention in the opinion of the bond rating agencies who flushed him down to sub-Ukraine levels last spring -- his electric car Ponzi scheme is about to crash and burn just like his rockets. SpaceX = Spending additional cash on our next eXplosion.

A half-decent lawyer could probably argue that "Am considering taking Tesla private" isn't a false statement. The only part that could be questioned then is if he actually had secured funding.

[Galloism]

To be honest, I think Musk is in the wrong here.

That did look like stock manipulation.

However, securities laws are so arcane and Byzantine, its very likely this whole thing drags out for years with lawyers going back and forth until either Tesla succeeds as a company and settles for an amount with such relative size as to be a small footnote in their financial statements, or the company folds due to other factors and Left gets nothing.

Also, Title was an excellent mislead. I was thinking this was going to be about Tesla and unions. Well played.

[The South Falls]

Musk is definitely in the wrong on this one.

Though he'll have another thirty years until the suit concludes.

[Dahon]

... OK, so why this hate around electric cars all of a sudden?

Probably because electric cars threaten tradition in car culture (yes, that's a thing), they threaten the fossil fuel market, range anxiety...

"Tradition in car culture"? But the concept of the electric car is older than that of the gas guzzler. Or am I... OK, what is the "tradition" that's supposed to be protected?

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Probably because electric cars threaten tradition in car culture (yes, that's a thing), they threaten the fossil fuel market, range anxiety...

"Tradition in car culture"? But the concept of the electric car is older than that of the gas guzzler. Or am I... OK, what is the "tradition" that's supposed to be protected?

Yes, but they provided no range. In the US you can go far in one tank of gas before you have to stop to re-fuel. The range of the electric car is still not the best and people do get anxious about it. ''How far can I go before I have to stop and charge the car?'' The petroleum industry is a giant too and it sees alternative energy sources as a threat to it's monopoly.

You know, the American automotive tradition. Gas, racing, big engines, vroom vroom vroom, fucking noise. Many people love that and see electric cars as a threat. I know it sounds idiotic, but that's how it is.

[Dogmeat]

Not seeing why it's "The Left" he's up against.

Seems like an attempt to conflate Andrew Left with the political left.

[Albrenia]

Not seeing why it's "The Left" he's up against.

Seems like an attempt to conflate Andrew Left with the political left.

The title made me think it was about left-wing politics fighting against that smell which you get when a house isn't aired out for too long.

[Ifreann]

Ol' Elon must have been injecting a few too many marijuanas.

[Shofercia]

Not seeing why it's "The Left" he's up against.

Seems like an attempt to conflate Andrew Left with the political left.

If that was the case, I would've written the title as "The Left" vs "Elon Musk", rather than "The Left" vs "The Musk" and if his name was Andrew Right, or Andrew Center, I would've done the exact same thing. Those who know me on NSG, know that.