All discussion of Nikola Motors

[humbaba]

You might want to take your money and run depending on how long those put options are dated. I agree with @Doggydogworld above that GM is really running the show (I mean, the SPAC that funded Nikola is effectively run by GM!) and they are doing it for a variety of reasons, not the least to be able to use the $7500 fed credit and to bypass their dealers. GM has a lot of options going forward including buying NKLA on the cheap at the right time for them. GM's engineers aren't idiots - they know Nikola has zero useful intellectual property. This is a just a fancy corporate structuring deal for GM.

Latest statement from GM. This sounds like it was written by a company that is methodically putting pieces together...

“We acknowledge Trevor Milton’s departure from Nikola and the decision of the Nikola Board to move forward. We will work with Nikola to close the transaction we announced nearly two weeks ago to seize the growth opportunities in broader markets with our Hydrotec fuel cell and Ultium battery systems, and to engineer and build the Nikola Badger. Nikola, Honda and other companies who are looking to GM’s technology as a platform for their products, represent just one part of our overall EV strategy. Our overall goal is to put everyone in an EV and accelerate adoption,” a GM spokesperson said in a statement to Yahoo Finance.

I thought that the SPAC just made money by facilitating fraud a company bypassing normal review, so the SPAC would not have cared about evaluating the viability of the business plan. Do you really think that GM planned to take over Nikola from the start and isn't just taking advantage of the current situation?

If they did, and it ever came out, it seems to me that GM would be implicated in the securities fraud.

I think its just that Trevor's fraud got out of control (too big, too fast) and GM is simply helping themselves to the opportunity in front of them.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I thought that the SPAC just made money by facilitating fraud a company bypassing normal review, so the SPAC would not have cared about evaluating the viability of the business plan. Do you really think that GM planned to take over Nikola from the start and isn't just taking advantage of the current situation?

If they did, and it ever came out, it seems to me that GM would be implicated in the securities fraud.

I think its just that Trevor's fraud got out of control (too big, too fast) and GM is simply helping themselves to the opportunity in front of them.

We will never know. It isn't as if this is/was ever documented anywhere. A former GM board member raises a SPAC. Along comes Nikola (and of course he would be looking at them since Nikola is in his industry). He of course thinks synergies between GM and Nikola. He probably has verbal talks with Barra before he takes on Nikola. Barra probably said, sure, that's a possibility, but let's see what investors think. Nikola SPAC does better than anyone imagined. Etc. Nothing need be documented and the only people in the know are Barra and a couple of her most trusted lieutenants, and the guy who raised the SPAC.

And yes, the SPAC guy does indeed want this to be a good financial investment for his institutional investors (remember it was mostly institutions who bought the initial SPAC deal) since he wants to raise another SPAC and do this all over again.

 

[Boomer19]

curious to see how many of you believe GM will actually follow through with deal... and if there’s any of you that don’t believe they will when all is said and dine.

as quoted below:

We acknowledge Trevor Milton’s departure from Nikola and the decision of the Nikola Board to move forward. We will work with Nikola to close the transaction we announced nearly two weeks ago to seize the growth opportunities in broader markets with our Hydrotec fuel cell and Ultium battery systems, and to engineer and build the Nikola Badger. Nikola, Honda and other companies who are looking to GM’s technology as a platform for their products, represent just one part of our overall EV strategy. Our overall goal is to put everyone in an EV and accelerate adoption,” a GM spokesperson said in a statement to Yahoo Finance


clearly they were going to take advantage of a NKLA that needed a boost of ‘legitimacy’

i’m sure they knew milton was a quack.

perhaps they did out him, as someone mentioned earlier (knight or dogdog said earlier today)

how far does the coup d’etat go?
what was premeditated, versus what is more “holy cow we didn’t see this one coming”

then again, most of the milton stuff the last handful of days is like wow, how is this all even possible? but i guess for gm, ousting him is all that matters. he could be a serial killer at this point and it doesn’t matter to them. he’s now in the dark and gagged as far as any nkla stuff goes

as for milton, i always wonder about the social media FUD/fake news angle. again i think he’s a tool, and i wouldn’t be surprised if everything we heard is true. but there’s also the part of me that wouldn’t be surprised to find out some of it was BS, after all. we’ve all seen attacks and smear tactics before.

either way, what a saga

 

[kbM3]

You cut off the best part: “This rumor is false. Trevor is on his way to my house to buy cocaine at this very moment.”

And then: “He tried to escape in one of his trucks, but it wouldn’t start”.

Oh no, what a missed opportunity.

instead of the truck “wouldn’t start”, they should’ve said he tried to escape in one of his trucks, but it was at the BOTTOM of the hill.

 

[smorgasbord]

Seems like a bad time to be selling additional stock, eh?

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1731289/000110465920106968/tm2030359-4_424b3.htm

up to 249,843,711 shares of our common stock, $0.0001 par value per share (“Common Stock”), which includes (i) up to 6,640,000 shares held by certain persons and entities (the “Original Holders”) holding shares of Common Stock initially purchased by VectoIQ Holdings, LLC (the “Sponsor”) and Cowen Investments II, LLC (“Cowen Investments” and, together with the Sponsor, the “Founders”) in a private placement in connection with the initial public offering of VectoIQ Acquisition Corp. and (ii) 243,203,711 shares held by certain affiliates of the Company. We are registering the shares for resale pursuant to such stockholders’ registration rights under a Registration Rights and Lock-Up Agreement between us and such stockholders, which in addition to such registration rights, also provides for certain transfer and lock-up restrictions on such shares.

Guess they think today's prices are high.

 

[Cosmacelf]

as for milton, i always wonder about the social media FUD/fake news angle. again i think he’s a tool, and i wouldn’t be surprised if everything we heard is true. but there’s also the part of me that wouldn’t be surprised to find out some of it was BS, after all. we’ve all seen attacks and smear tactics before.

Milton doesn't seem like the type to not attack any smear against him. Either his lawyers finally got hold of him and put the fear of 20 years in jail into him, or someone bought him a couple of prostitutes and a six pack of Tequila and he's on a bender, or ???

 

[Boomer19]

Seems like a bad time to be selling additional stock, eh?

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1731289/000110465920106968/tm2030359-4_424b3.htm



Guess they think today's prices are high.

is that for now? that’s dated 7/27/20

 

[MP3Mike]

Seems like a bad time to be selling additional stock, eh?

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1731289/000110465920106968/tm2030359-4_424b3.htm



Guess they think today's prices are high.

It doesn't look like they are selling shares, they are just updating the details because of Trevor leaving:

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.



On September 20, 2020, Trevor R. Milton offered to voluntarily step down from his positions as Executive Chairman of Nikola Corporation (the “Company”) and as a director on the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”), and the Board, after deliberation, accepted Mr. Milton’s offer.



In connection with Mr. Milton’s departure, the Company entered into that certain Agreement, dated September 20, 2020, by and between the Company and Mr. Milton (the “Agreement”), under which Mr. Milton voluntarily stepped down from his position as Executive Chairman of the Company and all positions as an employee and officer of the Company and its subsidiaries, and his position as a director on the Board and as a director of any of the Company’s subsidiaries, including all committees thereof, in each case, effective as of September 20, 2020. Mr. Milton will be making himself reasonably available to provide consulting services and to assist the Company as reasonably requested by the Board on an ad hoc basis through December 31, 2020.



Mr. Milton expressed his desire to relinquish, and pursuant to the Agreement, Mr. Milton agreed to relinquish (i) 100% of the 4,859,000 performance-based stock units granted to Mr. Milton on August 21, 2020 and (ii) any right or claim to enter into a two-year consulting agreement with an annual fee of $10,000,000. As part of Mr. Milton’s relinquishment of his performance based stock units, the Company also agreed to grant 1,069,000 time-vested restricted stock units vesting on June 3, 2023, to over 300 employees of the Company designated by Mr. Milton, subject to the employees’ continued employment at the Company through June 3, 2023. The Agreement also provides for the accelerated vesting and settlement of 600,000 restricted stock units granted to Mr. Milton on August 21, 2020.



For a period of three years from September 20, 2020 (the “Standstill Period”), Mr. Milton has also agreed to certain standstill provisions, including, among other things, agreeing not to (i) acquire ownership (beneficial or otherwise) of more than 19 million shares of the Company’s outstanding common stock, (ii) propose or effect any extraordinary transaction with respect to the Company, (iii) solicit any proxy or consent with respect to the election or removal of directors or any other proposal, (iv) seek representation on the Board or the removal of any member of the Board, or (v) submit any stockholder proposal.



In addition, during the Standstill Period, Mr. Milton has agreed to vote his shares of the Company’s common stock (i) in favor of the slate of directors recommended by the Board at any meeting of the stockholders of the Company and (ii) against the election of any nominee for director not recommended and nominated by the Board for election at such meeting.



The foregoing description of the terms and conditions of the Agreement does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by the full text of the Agreement, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 10.1 and incorporated herein by reference.


Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.


On September 20, 2020, the Company issued a press release entitled “Nikola Board of Directors Announces Leadership Transition,” a copy of which is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 hereto.



Item 8.01 Other Events.


On September 20, 2020, the Board elected Stephen J. Girsky, a member of the Board, as Chairman of the Board.

It does accelerate the vesting of some of his RSUs...

He is even required to vote he shares the way the board requests for the next three years, so he really has no say in how things go from here.

 

[bkp_duke]

is that for now? that’s dated 7/27/20

Yeah, planned 7/27, executed 9/21.

Piss poor timing, but I have my doubts they could have pulled it back.

 

[Krugerrand]

curious to see how many of you believe GM will actually follow through with deal... and if there’s any of you that don’t believe they will when all is said and dine.

as quoted below:

We acknowledge Trevor Milton’s departure from Nikola and the decision of the Nikola Board to move forward. We will work with Nikola to close the transaction we announced nearly two weeks ago to seize the growth opportunities in broader markets with our Hydrotec fuel cell and Ultium battery systems, and to engineer and build the Nikola Badger. Nikola, Honda and other companies who are looking to GM’s technology as a platform for their products, represent just one part of our overall EV strategy. Our overall goal is to put everyone in an EV and accelerate adoption,” a GM spokesperson said in a statement to Yahoo Finance


clearly they were going to take advantage of a NKLA that needed a boost of ‘legitimacy’

i’m sure they knew milton was a quack.

perhaps they did out him, as someone mentioned earlier (knight or dogdog said earlier today)

how far does the coup d’etat go?
what was premeditated, versus what is more “holy cow we didn’t see this one coming”

then again, most of the milton stuff the last handful of days is like wow, how is this all even possible? but i guess for gm, ousting him is all that matters. he could be a serial killer at this point and it doesn’t matter to them. he’s now in the dark and gagged as far as any nkla stuff goes

as for milton, i always wonder about the social media FUD/fake news angle. again i think he’s a tool, and i wouldn’t be surprised if everything we heard is true. but there’s also the part of me that wouldn’t be surprised to find out some of it was BS, after all. we’ve all seen attacks and smear tactics before.

either way, what a saga

GM is totally not going to follow thru with volume producing the Badger etc...

 

[Boomer19]

GM is totally not going to follow thru with volume producing the Badger etc...

i’m not convinced either

 

[Fred42]

curious to see how many of you believe GM will actually follow through with deal... and if there’s any of you that don’t believe they will when all is said and dine.

as quoted below:

We acknowledge Trevor Milton’s departure from Nikola and the decision of the Nikola Board to move forward. We will work with Nikola to close the transaction we announced nearly two weeks ago to seize the growth opportunities in broader markets with our Hydrotec fuel cell and Ultium battery systems, and to engineer and build the Nikola Badger. Nikola, Honda and other companies who are looking to GM’s technology as a platform for their products, represent just one part of our overall EV strategy. Our overall goal is to put everyone in an EV and accelerate adoption,” a GM spokesperson said in a statement to Yahoo Finance


clearly they were going to take advantage of a NKLA that needed a boost of ‘legitimacy’

i’m sure they knew milton was a quack.

perhaps they did out him, as someone mentioned earlier (knight or dogdog said earlier today)

how far does the coup d’etat go?
what was premeditated, versus what is more “holy cow we didn’t see this one coming”

then again, most of the milton stuff the last handful of days is like wow, how is this all even possible? but i guess for gm, ousting him is all that matters. he could be a serial killer at this point and it doesn’t matter to them. he’s now in the dark and gagged as far as any nkla stuff goes

as for milton, i always wonder about the social media FUD/fake news angle. again i think he’s a tool, and i wouldn’t be surprised if everything we heard is true. but there’s also the part of me that wouldn’t be surprised to find out some of it was BS, after all. we’ve all seen attacks and smear tactics before.

either way, what a saga

Until today I believed GM will back out. I thought they were waiting for more to happen that might reduce their legal exposure. But with GM's statement and the placement of their board member as executive chairman, now I don't know. The EV credits GM wants won't materialize if customers don't buy Nikolas. Can Nikola and GM resuscitate Nikola's good name in the eyes of potential buyers? That seems like a stretch. Plus Nikola has so little in-house expertise, who would provide big picture and detailed management of the Coolidge factory? I guess the options are to contract it all out; or for Nikola to hire people; or for GM to take over the management. If the semi plan doesn't work GM doesn't have the opportunity to sell the hydrogen and battery systems to put in the trucks. Also Nikola contracted with a Norwegian firm to build the hydrogen network. Does the contract cover all aspects of managing it?

There have been reports of a shortage of engineers at GM. Someone at GM said this, along with increased costs, was the reason they recently cancelled the big stylish Cadillac ICE crossover they'd been working on along with the now-cancelled CT8. Supposedly they didn't have the engineering bandwidth to do everything. So investing engineering resources in Nikola doesn't seem sensible given the likelihood that it will fail sooner or later.

So it still seems likely GM will bail.

 

[Cosmacelf]

This 8-K outlining Trevor's exit makes for interesting reading. He had to give up quite the golden parachute. They must have had some interesting goods on the guy. Maybe from this?

"12. Access to Information To Defend Against Lawsuits and Investigations. Within 14 days of the Effective Date, the Company shall provide the Executive with a copy of all emails the Executive sent or received through his Company email account, as well as the forensic images the Company took of the Executive's electronic devices."

One wonders what was in those "forensic images".

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1731289/000110465920106968/tm2030359-4_424b3.htm

 

[SageBrush]

But with GM's statement and the placement of their board member as executive chairman, now I don't know.

Best not to invoke malice when incompetence is in play.

I take the GM moves as either/or

• Legal cover when they bolt
• Attempt to deflect criticism away from Barra. Good luck with that

 

[Cosmacelf]

GM is using Nikola to sell Badgers that GM would have made anyways. GM gets those $7,500 credits plus $700M plus some stock, putatively worth $2B ($1.6B now). Given today's press releases and actions, all seems to unfolding according to plan for GM. BY the time Badgers are rolling off GM's assembly line, no one will remember who Trevor Milton was.

Whether by design or by accident, GM is basically raiding a SPAC IPO raise for their own uses. Frankly, it looks all by design to me. Why else would the SPAC allow Milton to sell during the acquisition? You normally don't do that. It was to give Milton his shush money in anticipation of his firing. I now think it likely the Hindenberg report's sources were orchestrated by GM.

Oh well, if this is what it takes for GM to get money to manufacture electric pickup trucks, so be it. I wouldn't expect a class 8 truck out of Nikola for, like, forever.

 

[Knightshade]

GM is using Nikola to sell Badgers that GM would have made anyways. GM gets those $7,500 credits plus $700M plus some stock, putatively worth $2B ($1.6B now).

Plus GM keeps all the EV emissions credits from NIkola sales too- to offset their own ICE fleet.

Like I've said- this is win-win-win for GM across the board.

Plus- if Nikola goes broke AFTER GM gets all that out of it, hey thanks for all the manufacturing and development costs you covered for us via the COST PLUS deal that we can now use to make GM EVs!

 

[Doggydogworld]

Whether by design or by accident, GM is basically raiding a SPAC IPO raise for their own uses. Frankly, it looks all by design to me. Why else would the SPAC allow Milton to sell during the acquisition?

Yes, they knew the mansion and toys would keep him busy. They also had to dilute him down so he wouldn't have too much control.

They'd already pushed him aside - e.g. he wasn't on the Q2 conference call. They didn't completely set him up, though. They were happy to let him hang around and generate buzz as long as he stayed inside the lines (which were clearly drawn). Trevor just can't help himself, though, and he dug his own grave.

 

[smorgasbord]

Latest twist is that Trevor's tweets are "protected":

 

[Prunesquallor]

Latest twist is that Trevor's tweets are "protected":

View attachment 590797

That lock icon could turn out to be doubly appropriate.

 

[alloverx]

If Biden wins the election, the $7,500 credits might be re-enabled with no volume restrictions as part of a green deal.