
Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire - abhi3
https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-techs-cash-poor-billionaire-11588967043
======
vikramkr
It's really concerning that theres essentially a giant liability, Elon's
personal debt, that doesnt show up on the balance sheet. As the article
discusses, a margin call would be devastating, and hopefully any irresponsible
decisions in his personal lifestyle choices don't spill over to put Tesla or
SpaceX at risk. Especially considering how powerful a force they've been in
driving consumer changes in vehicles and in developing the commercial space
market.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Very unlikely, but if necessary Tesla would go through a Chapter 11 reorg, not
a 7 liquidation. The brand, charging network, and manufacturing capacity has
too much value to throw away.

When Tesla was on the brink of insolvency years ago, he had a handshake deal
with Larry Page (they jetpooled together) for Google to acquire Tesla and for
Musk to continue to run day to day operations. Wasn’t necessary, but there are
options.

Elon will be fine.

~~~
reitzensteinm
If Tesla goes through Chapter 11, there's no way in hell Musk will be running
it afterwards.

He gets away with all his shenanigans because he's a rain maker.

If his incredible run of success dries up, the narrative is going to shift
hard.

~~~
avmich
> If his incredible run of success dries up, the narrative is going to shift
> hard.

I remember how Apple kicked out Jobs.

Any chance Tesla will suddenly find a competing company in EV market which it
can buy with certain conditions?..

~~~
na85
I know it's fashionable of late to lionize Jobs, but was it really him or was
it just the "second-generation effect"?

Look at Microsoft under Ballmer, or Google after Page/Brin. All seem(ed) to be
hollow shells of what once was.

~~~
adtac
Google has been anything but a hollow shell from a shareholder's perspective.
They've gone from strength to strength.

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tren-hard
[http://archive.md/0ncZV](http://archive.md/0ncZV)

~~~
DreadY2K
Link gets a DNS Resolution Error for me.

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mandeepj
> Yet he has to borrow, sometimes a lot, to pay for his lifestyle and business
> investments without liquidating shares that help him maintain control of the
> companies he runs.

Not sure. He could sell secondary shares without losing control, just like
zuck

~~~
colinmhayes
As the article points out, Tesla went public before the "founder gets
preferred shares that have all the voting power" thing became popular.
Zuckerberg sells the non-voting shares, but Musk doesn't have any.

~~~
dntbnmpls
> As the article points out, Tesla went public before the "founder gets
> preferred shares that have all the voting power" thing became popular.

This is simply not true. Google popularized it in 2004 with their IPO. It's
how page/brin today control over 50% of the alphabet votes. Zuckerburg copied
page/brin. The reason why musk couldn't get the same privileges is because
tesla wasn't a growth powerhouse that google/facebook/etc were. He wasn't in
position to make such demands from investors.

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troughway
The propaganda machine around Musk (Iron Man, etc) is so strong that I doubt
it will allow him to fail. There is too much money to be made in mythology.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
It looks to me like the real propaganda machine is the one whose only output
is a non-stop barrage of articles like these, unlike you know, rockets that
reach the ISS, and cars that have collectively safely driven billions of
miles.

Musk doesn't need to justify himself, these journalists might.

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burnett2k
Pay walled.

~~~
robbiep
Hit the web button at the top and then the first link

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new_realist
Elon uses four personal jets guzzling who knows now much gas. He practically
flies 24x7. When it comes to climate, he is a hypocrite.

~~~
ydb
Elon has done more for climate activism and the green movement in the last
decade than basically anybody. Besides perhaps Miss Thunberg.

His "guzzling" jets as you call them are a minor convenience in order to
facilitate quicker, more efficient transport to enable the evolution and
development of Tesla and SpaceX.

Do you expect him to drive everywhere? Not only would that be worse for the
environment, but it would mean more of Elon's precious time wasted and thus
also our time wasted because a brilliant man is stuck in traffic.

~~~
new_realist
I expect him to video conference, not fly 150,000 miles/take 250 flights a
year—nor fly his jet from one LA airport to another LA airport to shorten his
chauffeured ride home. I expect him to buy carbon offset credits. I expect him
to _not_ publicly trash public transportation. I expect him to _not_ donate to
climate change denying politicians, and I expect him to _not_ sell emissions
credits to polluting automakers, delaying their transition to ZEVs, and
sneakily undoing _all_ of the environments benefits from buying a Tesla car. I
expect the Tesla paint shop from repeatedly violating California emissions
regulations. I expect Musk to not spread coronavirus disinformation over
Twitter. I expect him to not expose his workers to undue risk by violating
Alemeda County’s restrictions on non-essential businesses.

------
mike_d
Remember that Elon agreed to have his tweets reviewed by Tesla's in-house
counsel in lieu of formal SEC action after he lied about taking the company
private.

He recently tweeted that the stock price was too high. Something legal would
never allow him to say, especially if he is on the verge of exercising
options.

My bet is the SEC isn't going to tolerate this behavior anymore, and he won't
be at the helm of any of his companies by the end of the year. He will be just
plain poor.

~~~
gpm
He agreed to have _material_ tweets reviewed by Tesla's in house counsel
before publishing. With a specific definition of material and examples of
content that would be material. This tweet IMHO doesn't fall under that
definition of material. Even if you think it did, you're blindly assuming that
this tweet wasn't reviewed (which it might well have been, if it was reviewed
it was _certainly_ legal instead of probably legal).

The SEC doesn't have a choice to tolerate or not tolerate this behavior. They
basically lost the last time they sued (it ended in a settlement where the
only concession to them was rephrasing an existing agreement after a judge
said some strong words), and they would probably lose again if they sued this
time.

~~~
clouddrover
> _Even if you think it did, you 're blindly assuming that this tweet wasn't
> reviewed_

Musk said it wasn't reviewed:

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-stock-falls-after-ceo-
twe...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-stock-falls-after-ceo-tweets-stock-
is-too-high-11588348672)

His tweets in general are not reviewed. He does not respect the SEC:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIzGdoPu9vs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIzGdoPu9vs)

~~~
gpm
> Musk said it wasn't reviewed:

Huh, I hadn't seen that. You're right (upvoted you).

> His tweets in general are not reviewed. He does not respect the SEC:

I'm perfectly aware, I'm the sort of weirdo who reads the court filings in
these lawsuits. I was hoping that he would have been ... cautious ... enough
to get this tweet reviewed against the general policy since it is pushing the
boundary of the agreement.

