Tweeting about cryptocurrencies rather than the core business, not only encourages credulous followers to sell stock shares to buy cryptocurrencies, but also turns off institutional investors.
Meanwhile, employees partially paid in stock shares and options can't be too happy with their depreciating assets. Those benefits had been arguments by management against unionization.
Employee stock options typically have two prices that matter, the price they are granted at and the price they vest at (excercise). The difference determines the value gained by the employee.
It's just as bad to have a high price when then are granted as it is to have a low price when they are vested. So a low price can benefit employees and give them incentive to stick around until they are vested.
My personal belief is that too much of the share price decline is being attributed to Bitcoin tweets by some people. Correlation does not equal causation and the price was set up to decline with or without the Bitcoin tweets. How much we can only make a meaningless guess. My way of thinking about my investment in TSLA is that it's really Elon's baby. While he pulled many talented and dedicated people together to make this happen, those people would not be together, at least not in a company nearly as successful, without Elon building the proper path. I don't say this with stars in my eyes as if he can do no wrong, every human makes mistakes, but I think a little humbleness from outside observers/shareholders is in order. I believe the world is much more complex and fluid than any one person's analysis can accommodate and that it's foolish to even claim with any certainty that you know which actions are mistakes and which ones get us to where we want to go.
If you think you know of a better person to lead the company, bring it up with the BoD. You had better have a strong contender and good reasons why this alternative leader will serve our interests better. You're going to have a hard time getting me to want to change horses after all the treacherous rivers we have crossed successfully. Short of that, I say let the leader lead and try not to second guess their every move as if anyone else can better predict the future than the proven leader. Chances are, we don't know 1/4 of what Elon is actually doing. I fully admit I don't know why he does what he does most of the time but, based on past performance, I give him the benefit of the doubt. Because I know of no other person I think could successfully lead this company as well. It's a lot harder than it looks and the company's performance to date on a multitude of fronts that we can't even see must have been just short of miraculous to have had so much concrete success in such a difficult field to enter. And I'm not speaking of share price appreciation, I'm looking at the companies execution in the real world, their ability to sell ever increasing volumes of EVs at a profit while building a world class charging network, something no other company can do. It's astounding and it took more correct turns than any of us will know to build a company lean enough and yet capable enough to do this.
The Bitcoin stuff is just noise. And there is probably a reason behind the perceived madness that goes well beyond the explanation offered by many outside observers, that Elon is foolish. Regardless of whether he's made every decision correctly (he hasn't but I don't pretend to be able to identify every mistake), I know Elon isn't foolish and is reacting to considerations we cannot even see.
Elon takes the long view and the noise in the moment doesn't move the needle much one way or the other. He doesn't need people second-guessing his every move, at least not those who are not in the thick of relevant considerations.
