On Wednesday’s Q1 earnings call, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk dismissed two questions from analysts, calling them “boneheaded” and “dry.” Then, Friday, he took to Twitter to defend the diss.
Musk suggested that followers not interested in “a tedious discussion about Tesla stock” ignore the thread. He then went on to explain that the analysts he cut off were representing a short-seller thesis, meaning they’re betting the stock price will decline.
Please ignore this thread unless you’re interested in a tedious discussion about Tesla stock
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2018
The 2 questioners I ignored on the Q1 call are sell-side analysts who represent a short seller thesis, not investors
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2018
On Tuesday’s call, Musk interrupted Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi when he asked about the company’s capital requirements. Musk complained the questions were “not cool” and called for the next caller.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak then asked about the percentage of Model 3 reservations that the company had started to configure. “These questions are so dry. They’re killing me,” Musk said after again dismissing the question and requesting to “go to YouTube.” Musk had previously agreed in a Twitter conversation to allow a video blogger to ask a question on the call. Musk then proceeded to take a range of questions from the blogger for more than 20 minutes.
Musk said he ignored the Bernstein question because it was answered in the headline of the letter the company issued prior to the call. He seemed to point at the incredible demand for the Model 3 as as a suitable deflection for Spak’s question.
Reason RBC question about Model 3 demand is absurd is that Tesla has roughly half a million reservations, despite no advertising & no cars in showrooms. Even after reaching 5k/week production, it would take 2 years just to satisfy existing demand even if new sales dropped to 0.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2018
“This is a financial analyst call, this is not a TED talk,” Sacconaghi told CNBC Thursday.
Musk, however, did cede that he should have addressed the questions.
True. And once they were on the call, I should have answered their questions live. It was foolish of me to ignore them.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2018
Tesla stock dipped as much as 7 percent in Wednesday’s after-hours trading, then ended down 5.5 percent to $284.45 on Thursday. The stock was trading up at $287.07 at publication of this article.