
Elon Musk: SpaceX and Tesla almost went bankrupt in 2008 - iam-TJ
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43365710
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dewski
There isn't a lot of substance in the article to back up the clickbait title.
A lot of the concern about Tesla and Space X were from quotes referencing the
state of the companies almost 10 years ago.

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greglindahl
That is the substance of the article - 10 years ago, both of them nearly died.
As you can see from the discussion here, a lot of people are either confused
about the article thanks to the title, or love discussing Tesla's current
market cap.

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bjl
I don't know about SpaceX (since they're private), but anyone who can read a
quarterly report knows that TSLA is one downturn away from becoming insolvent.
Their last bond issuance was well into junk territory, and the cash burn means
they'll be forced to raise more money sometime this year. If cash becomes
harder to come by they're in real trouble.

It doesn't help that they seem incapable of ramping up Model 3 production.

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tuna-piano
It's kind of weird. Their bond rating is pretty bad, but yet their stock
market cap seems super high - 5x last years revenue (with profits of -2B). Of
course, if there is risk to the bonds, that means the equity is even riskier.

Are many sophisticated investors buying the stock or is it mainly retail
investors who love the brand+man?

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bjl
TSLA has a ton of retail investors, which definitely helps prop up the price,
but there are definitely institutional investors as well. _Everything_ is
expensive these days, so one of the few ways to generate alpha is to buy the
right 'priced to perfection' companies, and for some reason (that I personally
can't comprehend) TSLA has a lot of savvy investors going long.

That being said, the short interest on this stock is incredibly high, making
it very pricy to bet against the company.

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solidsnack9000
_...his tunnelling firm, the Boring Company, was started as a joke because he
thought the name was funny..._

 _" They will start off building a rudimentary base... then this will open up
a world of new opportunities, because Mars will need pizza joints, great bars
- Mars Bars..."_

And now we know what the first bars on Mars will be called.

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senectus1
someone pointed out to me tha all the Tesla car models so far are named:
S,3,X,Y...

they guy has a bold flair...

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cududa
Headline and article itself are a bit misleading. When he said “alive by the
skin of their teeth” he was referencing the past, not current situation

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schwarrrtz
This isn’t really a news article. Almost everything in here was covered in the
Vance book.

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bpicolo
(in 2008)

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mankash666
First rule of HN - "thou shalt not blasphemize the HN gods"!! Flagging a BBC
story on Musk and co. is bloody low.

This article is factually accurate. Get over it fanboys

