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Blog Musk, S.E.C. Granted Extra Week to Settle Twitter Feud

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Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission will get a little more time to work it out.

U.S. Judge Alison Nathan is giving both parties a one-week extension to settle an ongoing dispute over Musk’s use of Twitter. The judge initially called for a resolution to be agreed upon by April 18, but a joint-request for an extension was filed.

“While we have not reached an agreement, counsel for the SEC, Mr. Musk, and counsel for Tesla met and conferred for over an hour by telephone earlier this week and are continuing to discuss a potential resolution,” the filing said. “Because our discussions are ongoing, we respectfully request to provide the Court with another joint submission on or before April 25, 2019, indicating whether we have reached an agreement in principle.”

If they can’t work out an understanding, then the judge will decide if Tesla’s chief executive should be held in contempt of court for violating an earlier agreement with the SEC regarding his use of Twitter.

Musk agreed in October to settle an SEC fraud complaint related to tweets saying he had “funding secured” to take the automaker private. As part of the settlement, Musk agreed to have potentially market-moving tweets reviewed before hitting send.

In February, Musk tweeted “Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019.” A follow-up tweet a few hours later updated the delivery number to 400,000 cars this year.

The SEC says those tweets weren’t approved, contained information material to Tesla, and thereby violated the agreement. The agency then asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt.

 
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If he were commander in chief, he could say Tesla will make a million in a month. I'd say he needs to be elected president first so he could do that. :)

On the other hand, since he is a mere mortal, perhaps laying off twitter except to be a cheerleader for his brand, might be a better idea.
 
In the previous arrangement, Tesla took the role of the court and the court doesn't really appreciate being outsourced. The parties have to find a way to move forward and satisfy the court that it's being respected.
That Tesla lost half of its S and X sales seemingly overnight doesn't help Musk's genuineness. He must have seen that coming and decided to come up with a big number anyway. Difficult to justify his implicit rate of production predictions if they tend to not amount to much in practice. 5K Model 3 per week end 18Q2, 19Q1 less than 5K/wk average. "Steep part of the S curve". Why it just accept that predictive numbers are not for him? Isn't life and work full enough without that? He's not exactly been great at guessing numbers, as they simply cannot be disconnected from time. Otherwise a growing company meets every target, always.

I wish Elon could keep his phone in his pocket better, focus on progress rather than prophesying. S and X were promised to remain technology leaders but were all but decommissioned in 2017. Upgrade them!
 
“the judge will have no choice but to grant more time for a proper settlement... This will take months.”

Judge Orders Musk, Regulators to Meet on Tweets

Another week passes, and the parties request and are granted another one week extension. What did I tell ya?
As long as Musk doesn’t do anything unambiguously wrong, the settlement is essentially in limbo for these months before it’s done.