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Tesla IPO

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Not so immense


Ecxactly the same arguments were made when Honda started selling motorcycles in Europe (early 60's). Remember the Honda Dream? "It is impossible to enter that market against those great established manufacturers". When Honda's first car, the N600, appeared 1969 on European roads all those automobile experts knew it better: "No chance, that market is already well served and pretty crowded."
 
So...er...knowing virtually nothing about IPO's 'n stuff (except what I picked up from the Wikipedia entry)....

How long is this IPO period supposed to last? When can I start purchasing stock...once the SEC approves the IPO?

There's a customary waiting period that usually lasts a couple of months, at least, while investors get to review the filing and the investment bankers get to line up buyers to ensure that they can meet their target price for the IPO. Eventually, assuming all goes well, they'll announce a date for the IPO -- at that point, either you'll be able to buy in at the IPO price (I'm still not clear if Model S reservation holders will be eligible for this. Roadster owners will clearly be able to buy stock pre-IPO at the set price, and any big investor with an investment house that gets some shares), or you'll have to wait until opening day to buy some stock from someone who was able to buy in pre-IPO.

Depending on the popularity of the stock, the price may be somewhat higher the first days after it goes public -- gone are the days when theglobe.com goes public and the price shoots up 10x the original IPO price, but if the bankers have done their job the price should appreciate somewhere between 10%-30% the first few days the stock is on the market and maintain there for a reasonable period of time. No one wants to buy into an IPO and have the price drop immediately and never get above its original price, and the bankers have gotten pretty good at avoiding this from happening.
 
Alfred, you sound like a good guy, but on investments, I think you need to do some more homework.
I have been following Tesla for about 5 years now. Ever since it was a blip on the radar screen.
I believe Tesla COULD have a viable market share IF AND ONLY IF, they aquire a managment team who can sell a mass production product. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to even be close to the case.
Building a high end sports car and selling 900, is a far cry from selling 500,000 across multiple countries.
You seem very "gun ho" to buy up as much Tesla stock as you can.
A company with zero profits, high debt load, limited product, and a managment team seeming a bit lost on where to go from here.

Could they survive? Sure! But Survive and Thrive are 2 totally different things
Investors are looking for 4 things mainly....Low debt:income ratio, expected AND predictable growth, sizeable market share, and consistent earnings. NONE of which Tesla has ATM

I too have waited for the Tesla IPO, but under the current circumstances, consider it a donation, and not an investment..lol I like Twinkies, but that doesn't mean investing in Hostess is a great idea.
Sorry to rain on everyone's parade...but as an successful investor myself, I felt the obligation
 

This is notable, especially that last sentence (emphasis mine):
Also included in the document is a response to the Toyota Prius recall. Tesla says it implemented several algorithms in its vehicle software to reduce the likelihood of unintended acceleration due to a mechanical or electronic failure.

"We stop the flow of electricity to our motor when the car is placed in neutral or the key is rotated from the 'on' position. We also stop the flow of electricity to the motor during normal vehicle operation when the brake pedal is depressed for more than two seconds," the company says.
 
No not yet, but plan to in the future. Working capital tied up at the moment,

How do you like yours? Tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly..haha

People at stoplights always ask, "How do you like it?" After playing around with a couple of answers like. 'It's great!" and "Love it!" I have finally settled on, "It's simply the most amazing technology you will ever drive."

The ugly radio bites, other than that my complaints are those of it being a sports car (small, low, small again) so I can't fault the car for that, just me for too many doughnuts.
 
This is notable, especially that last sentence (emphasis mine):
"We stop the flow of electricity to our motor when the car is placed in neutral or the key is rotated from the 'on' position. We also stop the flow of electricity to the motor during normal vehicle operation when the brake pedal is depressed for more than two seconds," the company says.

I tried it, and the motor happily pushes against the brakes. Maybe this fix is in a newer firmware update.
 
The San Carlos company awarded its top exec 20,135,920 million stock options in December and tied half of them to milestones in the development and delivery of Tesla's all-important second vehicle, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.

Wow, getting 20 billion stock options is insane! :biggrin:

(For those that don't get it, I'm being sarcastic and I multiplied 20,135,920 * 1 million because of how it's worded)

According to the filing, the options are valued at $2.21 each.

I know some companies allow employees to buy stock at a reduced price but does this mean that Tesla anticipates an opening stock price of $2.21? :confused:
 
I know some companies allow employees to buy stock at a reduced price but does this mean that Tesla anticipates an opening stock price of $2.21? :confused:

Goodness, no! A stock option is not like restricted stock, which is basically a stock award. An option means that an employee has the option of purchasing the stock at the set price (in this case, $2.21/share). If Tesla ultimately goes public and is selling for, say, $15/share, then EM could exercise his option to buy some or all of his options at $2.21 and then immediately sell them for $15, giving him a net profit of $12.79/share. In his case, he'd probably exercise his options, sell some to get some cash, and hold onto the rest -- he may actually be required to do so because many executives are required to hold a certain percentage or amount of stock in their company.

It is in the employee's best interest to get his options at the lowest price possible, to create the biggest spread between the option price and the actual price upon sale, although this pricing was probably based roughly on a full valuation of the company divided by the total outstanding shares (and options). Daimler's investment last year would also be a good marker for determining the market value of these non-public shares/options at this time. So they don't pick the number out of thin air, but they definitely expect the IPO and post-IPO price to be well above $2.21. Most companies want to be at at least $10/share to avoid any delisting issues, which happens if they fall below $1/share.
 
Goodness, no! A stock option is not like restricted stock, which is basically a stock award. An option means...

So for those of us that do not live in the world of stocks, but are interest in what is happening with Tesla, where would one go for buying (and/or selling) from this new offering.

Of course there are is web trading but why take a timing risk the first time out?
 
So for those of us that do not live in the world of stocks, but are interest in what is happening with Tesla, where would one go for buying (and/or selling) from this new offering.

Of course there are is web trading but why take a timing risk the first time out?

Musk's options are for sale on any market -- they're given a strike price so that they know how much he has to "pay" for his options if/when he decides to cash them in. Technically, no Tesla shares will be available until the IPO, when they are "publicly" traded. Some people holding shares (employees, VCs etc.) may have some shares/options that they hold that are transferable, meaning that they can sell them to someone else, but the only way to get access to those (if they exist) is to know the person or company holding the stock. And even at that, most people are holding their stock assuming that the IPO price will allow them to cash out much higher than what their current stock is priced at. For example, even if Musk could sell his options (which is exceedingly unlikely), he'd be an idiot for selling them to someone at anything less than probably $15 or $20/share.

As discussed previously on this thread, there is the possibility of getting in on the IPO at the pre-sale price. Most big brokerage houses get shares and will give them to preferred customers, and E-Trade (which bought Wit Captial, who invented this) probably has a lottery for account holders to get some piece of the IPO. Also, as a proud Tesla owner, you apparently will get access to IPO shares, which is excellent because you will know the price in advance, and can probably rely on a nice bump in the first few weeks or months. The interesting question will be whether you can immediately sell. In many cases, employees and other insiders have to wait a fairly significant period of time from the IPO to sell so there isn't a glut of supply of shares on the market right at the IPO, so there is a bit of an articifical bump until/unless those people are able to sell without restriction. If you look at the history of many IPOs from the past 10-15 years, you can see a dip a few months after an IPO that usually correlates with the lifting of restricted sales by insiders.
 
Once the date is very close, you could watch here to have a chance to see when they might be listed:

Upcoming IPOs - Renaissance Capital

Supposedly their customers were going to be given some opportunity to participate in the IPO, not just buy after it is public.

I have no idea how they might notify you if such an opportunity is available to you.