A new series of tweets that could cost Elon Musk dear. Electric vehicle maker Tesla dived on Wall Street on Friday 1er May, after several disconcerting messages from his boss on Twitter, including one judging the course of action ” too high “. The title ended the session on a plunge of 10.3%, after having tumbled more than 13% a little earlier. It remains up over 65% since the start of the year.
The market capitalization of Tesla, a group founded in 2003, is almost double that of General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler combined even though these manufacturers sell millions of cars per year. Tesla hopes to sell half a million cars this year, which will be an all-time high.
“Tesla share price is too high”, wrote, around 5:15 pm in France, Mr. Musk on his Twitter account, without developing further. This tweet is likely to draw the attention of the financial markets authority, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), who is skeptical about the communication of information having consequences on the evolution of the stock market.
Recalls another message from 2018
Especially since it recalls another 2018 message from Mr. Musk about a possible Tesla withdrawal from the stock market. The latest tweet sparked a Homeric showdown between the business owner and the SEC, which resulted in an agreement that Elon Musk was stripped of his hat as chairman of Tesla’s board of directors.
In 2019, after further hostilities, the agreement was amended to list subjects on which Mr. Musk could not tweet without the prior green light from Tesla’s chief legal officer. The list included information on the company’s financial health, potential mergers and acquisitions, production and sales figures for cars, new models of cars, purchasing of Tesla securities and financial products.
Contacted by Agence France-Presse to find out if Mr. Musk had violated the terms of the agreement with the SEC, Tesla did not follow up. The answer is not in doubt for the financiers who speculated on the Tesla stock market collapse.
“Musk’s share price tweet is standard-setting information for anyone. How can this not be a clear violation of the agreement? “ tied with the SEC?, immediately reacted the famous American financier Jim Chanos.
Tweets disconnected from each other
Elon Musk, head of the space company SpaceX, also launched Friday in a series of tweets, disconnected from each other. “I’m going to sell all of my physical goods. Will no longer own a house », can we read in one of the messages.
I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.
– elonmusk (@Elon Musk)
In two others, the leader reiterates his sharp criticism of the containment intended to limit the spread of Covid-19. “Now give back to the people their FREEDOM”, gets carried away in a tweet; “Anger, anger at the death of the light of conscience”, proclaims another of his messages. Musk said Wednesday that “Fascist” containment, believing that this measure, adopted by countries around the world to fight against the health crisis, suffocated businesses.
The leader had closed the Tesla plant in California backwards on March 19 and wanted to reopen it on May 4 but the extension of confinement and social distancing thwarts this project.
All this did not prevent Tesla from posting a net profit of 16 million dollars (14.4 million euros) in the first quarter, a first for the first three months of the year since the creation of the group there are soon seventeen.
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