Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[PeterJA]

Oh no no. Elon would sell his oldest core shares just so he can overpay in taxes to fund Twitter.

His last sale of Tesla shares had about zero strategy but purposely did it in a style where he pays the most taxes and caused the most pain to shareholders.

Palantir stock is down 8.2% today. Darn that Elon for selling PLTR to fund his Twitter nonsense.

 

[Boomer19]

Meh. He can post more shares as collateral and he has lots of it. I think around 170 million shares.

The bigger outstanding question is how he is gonna raise the 16 odd billion in equity that's still needed to close the transaction.

1. Let existing Twitter share holders roll their holdings into a private Twitter

2. 4 billion of cash on Twitter balance sheet that's his to use at closing

3. Issue X company subordinate debt, that others can buy. Remember SpaceX had in the past bought scty bonds

4. Private equity funds who can go in with him. Thoma bravo was rumored. A lot of serial VCs who backed him like DFJ etc may be interested, but typically they write smaller checks. He did work with silver lake in the past.

5. Hit up his buddies like Ellison or Branson

6. Sell some Tsla

7. A bit of all or some of the above

He has too many options. I am in the camp that he sold some TSLA today and from his perspective, showing a bit of that cash will give him better leverage with the other options. He probably has a good sense of the split.

maybe rule out silver lake. mcnamee was on cnbc today slamming the deal

'There's no reason to believe this transaction was in shareholders' best interest,' says Roger McNamee on Twitter deal

Roger McNamee, Elevation Partners co-founder, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss his take on Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, McNamee's theory on Twitter's management and more.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Boomer19]

Yes - thats my take as well. He sold some shares.

Though its also possible, some big fish bailed out because they think the SP will go down if/when Musk sells stock.

maybe was doubling down?

 

[2daMoon]

Agreed. Elon said this Twitter buy is not about economics but you would think one of the smartest entrepreneurs of all time would not be stupid enough to sell his TSLA shares especially with the runway it has ahead of it. Well that’s my hope anyway.

Elon is a man of principle. He didn't start SpaceX for economic reasons. Tesla didn't get his attention for economic reasons. Twitter is not about economic reasons. Same with his other projects.

Elon is passionate about the things he believes in. Big ideas. Like saving the planet, preserving human consciousness, making life better with AI, robots, Neuralink, evolving the economy into one of abundance, and now, creating an unbiased platform encouraging freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is crucial for accomplishing his several goals and doing so in a way that aligns with his principles.

If he thinks Twitter is important to the overall plan, and every indication is that he does, then he will make use of every resource he has available to accomplish that goal.

I think this may be the most worthy goal he has set his sights on, as this "town square" approach that makes it easy to counter fake news, FUD, and any other such tactics in a way that garners world-wide exposure is unheard of in human history.

Such a platform can encourage people to do their own follow-up instead of downloading the talking heads' diatribe into their brain without question. People would be much better off if they get into the habit of gathering all the facts and making their own decision.

Whatever he does will continue to benefit mankind in significant ways, because Elon believes this is where humanity should be steering itself toward. He's just showing us how, and providing the tools to accomplish it.

It just so happens that in supporting his mission we can benefit as well. This is because what he does is right, because everyone wins in the end. His being an entrepreneur is merely a side-effect of what Elon is driven to accomplish in his lifetime.

HODL

 

[Singuy]

Palantir stock is down 8.2% today. Darn that Elon for selling PLTR to fund his Twitter nonsense.

Lol.

I am in the camp that Elon didn't sell.
However I do feel like institutional investors are not a fan of Musk creating uncertainty in a bearish market and it was them who dumped.

The entire qqq had a bad day, but only twitter and Tesla had higher than normal volume.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Elon is a man of principle. He didn't start SpaceX for economic reasons. Tesla didn't get his attention for economic reasons. Twitter is not about economic reasons. Same with his other projects.

Elon is passionate about the things he believes in. Big ideas. Like saving the planet, preserving human consciousness, making life better with AI, robots, Neuralink, evolving the economy into one of abundance, and now, creating an unbiased platform encouraging freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is crucial for accomplishing his several goals and doing so in a way that aligns with his principles.

If he thinks Twitter is important to the overall plan, and every indication is that he does, then he will make use of every resource he has available to accomplish that goal.

I think this may be the most worthy goal he has set his sights on, as this "town square" approach that makes it easy to counter fake news, FUD, and any other such tactics in a way that garners world-wide exposure is unheard of in human history.

Such a platform can encourage people to do their own follow-up instead of downloading the talking heads' diatribe into their brain without question. People would be much better off if they get into the habit of gathering all the facts and making their own decision.

Whatever he does will continue to benefit mankind in significant ways, because Elon believes this is where humanity should be steering itself toward. He's just showing us how, and providing the tools to accomplish it.

It just so happens that in supporting his mission we can benefit as well. This is because what he does is right, because everyone wins in the end.

HODL

I'd agree with your initial point: Elon's true love is Space-X. He would never sell or leverage any of it. Tesla exists to fund his other work - if he needs money he can easily leverage more of those shares which as noted he has plenty

 

[2daMoon]

I'd agree with your initial point: Elon's true love is Space-X. He would never sell or leverage any of it. Tesla exists to fund his other work - if he needs money he can easily leverage more of those shares which as noted he has plenty

I'd disagree.

Tesla exists to hasten the transition of the world to sustainable energy.

Seems like it is their stated mission or something goofy like that, isn't it?

The things he is working on are not founded upon petty desires for himself. Many people seem to have a challenging time grokking that about him.

Elon's true love is focused upon preserving and spreading this tiny candle of consciousness that sparked as humanity upon Earth.

 

[generalenthu]

He can't use more than 25% of the value of his pledged holdings.

yes, but but there's no limit on what portion of his holdings he can pledge. Theoretically he can pledge all his holdings. He's pledging only a fraction of it for the margin loan.

If you look at the deal docs, it says he can post additional collateral if the stock price drops. he would not have to liquidate. That is my point.

 

[generalenthu]

maybe rule out silver lake. mcnamee was on cnbc today slamming the deal

'There's no reason to believe this transaction was in shareholders' best interest,' says Roger McNamee on Twitter deal

Roger McNamee, Elevation Partners co-founder, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss his take on Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, McNamee's theory on Twitter's management and more.

www.cnbc.com

i dunno, if he thinks twitter is much more valuable and the shareholders are getting cheated, silver lake should definitely throw their hat in and partner with Elon.

 

[Joshker]

Another thing to consider is Elon has stated several times that he believes a recession is near/2023. Not a bad time to sell some shares. Unlike uncle Bill, I don't think Elon gives a about shorting the market or even money in general but this may be a good time to free up some money if he believes in the mission and a a recession is near.

 

[MrMoo]

Another thing to consider is Elon has stated several times that he believes a recession is near/2023. Not a bad time to sell some shares. Unlike uncle Bill, I don't think Elon gives a about shorting the market or even money in general but this may be a good time to free up some money if he believes in the mission and a a recession is near.

He also should of sold some shares when model 3 ramp was doing really poorly and he slept on the warehouse floor. I don't think he did then so I don't see how a recession would change his mind.

Also your post contradicts itself. You mention you don't think he cares about money in general but also you think now would be a good time for him to free up some money.

 

[Singuy]

Another thing to consider is Elon has stated several times that he believes a recession is near/2023. Not a bad time to sell some shares. Unlike uncle Bill, I don't think Elon gives a about shorting the market or even money in general but this may be a good time to free up some money if he believes in the mission and a a recession is near.

If Elon believes there's a recession looming, then why is he paying too much for twitter? Wait for more crashes and buy it at 42.0

 

[Accident]

He also should of sold some shares when model 3 ramp was doing really poorly and he slept on the warehouse floor. I don't think he did then so I don't see how a recession would change his mind.

Also your post contradicts itself. You mention you don't think he cares about money in general but also you think now would be a good time for him to free up some money.

He also wouldn’t get a margin loan if he thinks the stock is going to crash.

 

[EVDRVN]

He's betting it all on the Cyber Quad design

 

[MrMoo]

He also wouldn’t get a margin loan if he thinks the stock is going to crash.

Lol good point there too. Would be foolish to agree to that rather than some other financing arrangement.

 

[FireMedic]

The Crew4 mission is set to launch in about three hours. Currently NASA astronauts are using model X vehicles to deliver them to The SPACEX broomstick. More free advertising.

 

[Artful Dodger]

but there's no limit on what portion of his holdings he can pledge.

Tesla's Bylaws say Officers and Directors can not borrow against more than 25% of their shares. Rob Maurer covered that today: (3:49)

 

[dhanson865]

It's not twitter related but Chevy/GM has killed another EV.

GM Kills Support For The Spark EV, No Battery Replacement Available

UPDATE 4/27/2022: EV Resource has received the following statement from Kevin M. Kelly, Senior Director, Chevrolet Communications : "Recent reports speculating that GM will no longer provide...

www.ev-resource.com

I used to think EVs would be reliable enough to make any used EV a safe pick but now after seeing Leaf/Bolt/Spark and even Tesla's that are out of warranty I'm getting to the point in my life where I don't want to do car repairs anymore.

I need Austin to crank out hundreds of thousands of units ASAP. I want to be able to get a new new car with out a multi quarter wait (lets get it below 4 weeks even). Pump out those made in Texas Teslas please...

 

[StealthP3D]

Yes, the one thing I always believed was when he said he was first in, last out. I trusted him for a long time on his word and remained invested. If he can't be trusted with this then I will need to rethink just what I can trust with Elon.

Can't be trusted with "first in, last out"?

You can't be serious! All he has to do to keep his word on that metric is die with a significant stake in TSLA. He never indicated he wouldn't sell some along the way. He's the largest TSLA shareholder in the world even if he sold a metric crap-ton more stock.

Don't fear insider selling, it's normal for insiders with a lot of shares to slowly sell-off and diversify. However, I don't think that's what happened today, I think it was general investor nervousness with the overall market and also with TSLA due to all the noise surrounding the Twitter deal and COVID uncertainty in China. It will end up being just a blip in the bigger picture.

 

[petit_bateau]

The new Twitter won't be just the old Twitter but with Musk in charge.

The new Twitter will have implications for a lot of existing media businesses.

That means Musk will have a lot more (new) enemies.

Which in turn will have implications for Tesla and all the other Musk businesses and their shareholders.

This is just the start !