Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
The following excerpt is from a daily newsletter by The New Republic:
Elon Musk sold about $4 billion worth of shares in Tesla, the electric-car maker he founded, presumably to fund his $44 billion prospective purchase of Twitter. He later tweeted (twote?) that he did not plan to sell any more Tesla shares. Separately, Reuters reported that Mr Musk plans to increase Twitter's cash flow by cutting executive pay and developing new ways to monetize tweets.
The excerpt that Old_Joe posted summarizes it nicely. Twitter has almost 8,000 employees! Experts think 2-3k is the right number. Couple that with clever ways to monetize tweets… as someone said “I wouldn’t bet against him”…
“Elon Musk has assembled a group of investors including a Saudi prince, Larry Ellison and a bitcoin exchange to pony up more than $7 billion to back his bid to buy Twitter Inc. Tesla Inc.’s chief executive has lined up about $7.14 billion from 19 investors, a roster of big-money backers whose investment effectively reduces the personal risk Mr. Musk has to take to close the $44 billion deal for the social-media company. The new money will cut in half the amount Mr. Musk needs to borrow against his Tesla stake, according to a regulatory filing, and will slightly reduce the balance of cash he needs to put up personally, to just under $20 billion. The biggest contribution comes from Prince al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who agreed to retain a stake in Twitter valued at $1.9 billion following Mr. Musk’s takeover, the disclosure said …..
“Mr. Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle Corp., agreed to put in $1 billion. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance.com, controlled by billionaire developer Changpeng Zhao, promised $500 million. Venture-capital firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are contributing $800 million and $400 million, respectively. Arms of asset managers Fidelity Investments and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. also will take part.”
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal - May 6, 2022
The current Barron's has a Cover and several features on Transportation (Part 1 is out for those interested). And one cannot talk about that without Musk. Speculation is growing whether Musk will be distracted from his old projects (Tesla, SpaceX, Boring) now that he has spent most of his pocket money on Twitter.
I think this is one of the more interesting tech stories this year. . . and my interest has ZERO to do with politics or free speech. It has to do with the mismanagement of the company for many years and how Elon will turn it around in short order. He's already (cryptically) presented some creative ideas on how to turn around the company. He's a prolific user of Twitter and spends close to ZERO on advertising. Why would he? He's had the audience of Twitter etc. I continue to think he's three steps ahead of everyone else.
Will there be obstacles in the purchase? You bet! Re: The "Delay" Lawsuit - It's interesting that the plaintiff stands to gain $20M from the sale Edit/Add: and the pension fund will be negatively impacted (in a big way) if the sale doesn't go through. Oh, and if he had a pre-arrangement with Dorsey et al... why would he have threatened a "tender"? A tall leap by the pension fund and even a "pact" does not equal 15% single interested stockholder.
There's plenty of people against the idea. His financing and concentration will not be an obstacle. I'd bet on that.
The current Barron's has a Cover and several features on Transportation
Yes - Just browsed through it. Barron’s sounds high on GM and negative on Toyota. Wanna buy a bridge?
Their logic stems from GM’s ongoing plans to develop fashionable all-electric vehicles vs. Toyota’s loyalty to “complicated” hybrids. GM might indeed be a better near term play as they suggest. But longer term my bet would be on Toyota’s quality build and engineering know-how. I think they overestimate a hybrid’s complexity. In many ways they’re simpler than an all gas vehicle. But I digress …
My concern is that we are going to have a sudden flood of new electric vehicles before anything close to the infrastructure necessary to support that. Hybrids will easily bridge that gap, but eventually the game will go to all electric. I doubt that I'll live long enough to see that, though.
@Old_Joe : Are you putting forth the idea of a two car charging station not enough for a town of app. 5700 ? That's the number we have. Better yet the county is installing 100 solar charging stations. Hells- bells , I'll take a guess that the cloudy days out number the sunny days at least 2 to 1 in my part of the woods. Solar, now I'm wondering if the reporter got it right ?! I'm wondering if the drive up lanes have shorten since gas hit $4 + a gallon. nothing like 6 to 10 cars or more waiting to get their food.
@ Derf- Even in hot-to-trot California things are dicey. A recent survey found that almost 25% of existing charging stations are either inaccessible or out of service at any given time. By far the larger factor is the installation of home charging stations: how many people are actually going to wait for half an hour or more to charge at some public station? Especially if when they get there they have to wait in line for a charger to become available?
By the way, the survey that I mentioned did not include any Tesla charging stations- those are not available to the general public- only Tesla vehicles.
I get the distinct impression that many of the upcoming electric vehicles will start availability in the next couple of years. How many years does anyone think that it's going to take to get a reasonably sufficient charging infrastructure into place? And who exactly is going to pay for all of that?
None of this should be interpreted to suggest that I'm against the transition- in the long run, it's necessary. But I'm very skeptical that it's going to be a smooth one.
I suppose electric will be the wave of the future. More advancement in battery tech needed I think. From what I’ve read, juicing up a dead cell takes nearly half hour under best circumstances. Hauling a load into the wind driving 80 mph? How far’s that gonna get you? Normal range is what? 350 miles? Maybe 200-250 under the harsher conditions I just described.
Electric is great for 90% of one’s driving which tends to be close to home. However, a mid sized hybrid gets nearly 50 mpg under those circumstances. A compact probably close to 60 mpg.. Of course, I’m highly biased owning a hybrid. And would love to own a Tesla! Unfortunately, the price of Teslas keeps rising while my portfolio keeps shrinking.
I have relatives who have driven TSLAs With the AC on Radio etc, the range is no where near 200 More like 125 to 150.
Everyone is holding their breath for the Truck, but who wants to spend that kinda money on a vehicle that won't go cross country or more than 300 miles?
Cousin in LA says three of his friends TSLAs just quit. Had to get new cars.
Recent seeking alpha article compared car companies on revenue, sales etc. TSLA stock far far overpriced. Not sue however why he has 2018 data in some of the charts. The contrasts between GM F and TSLA stock is stark
That's the lamest excuse for not doing one's homework before turning it in.
I bet he's figuring out that it's not worth using HIS money (or sinking TSLA shares) so why not coax or cajole others to pony up and help pay for his midlife crisis impulse-buying experience? Or perhaps put the deal 'on hold' to drive the stock lower to get more allies to snap up the cheaper shares so they can vote for whatever he wants to do .... i.e., it's market manipulation, but who cares, that's what he does.
IMO, Elon Musk has found how little TWTR and TSLA stocks are valued as collateral by banks to round up financing (margin & other). He may now be trying to get the cash price of TWTR lowered by a few billions. I just checked the SEC/Edgar filings for TWTR and Elon Musk and there are none beyond 5/9/22 and 5/5/22, respectively. This is market manipulation but the FTC and SEC are sleeping and are still trying to deal/catchup with his very late initial filing of TWTR position disclosure.
IMO, Elon Musk has found how little TWTR and TSLA stocks are valued as collateral by banks to round up financing (margin & other). He may now be trying to get the cash price of TWTR lowered by a few billions. I just checked the SEC/Edgar filings for TWTR and Elon Musk and there are none beyond 5/9/22 and 5/5/22, respectively. This is market manipulation but the FTC and SEC are sleeping and are still trying to deal/catchup with his very late initial filing of TWTR position disclosure.
Not to mention, a few million bucks' as a possible SEC/FTC penalty is mere sofa change to Elon....
I have relatives who have driven TSLAs With the AC on Radio etc, the range is no where near 200 More like 125 to 150.
Everyone is holding their breath for the Truck, but who wants to spend that kinda money on a vehicle that won't go cross country or more than 300 miles?
Tesla cars are over-priced just like the Hummers. In addition, TSLA drivers don’t care about efficiency but they focus on their status. EVs are great for the environment but what the economic trade offs and practicalities in our daily life?
Given what has happened in the market since the bid was placed, no person or company would NOT renegotiate the offer. Twitter is no longer worth what it was when the bid was placed.
The recent layoffs of senior execs along with the hiring freeze and cost control memos only reinforce how badly this company needs someone like Musk. Good for him in negotiating a better deal. Depending on what the new ask is, I would surprised if there's anyone out there that will outbid him. The market seems to agree.
Re: Market manipulation with this new development... please explain to me how potentially pulling out of the deal would positively impact Musk and his 9% of shares that he currently owns - which at the moment are worth a lot less.
Perhaps Musk knows more about the actual number of spam bots that exist and just maybe it greatly exceeds what Twitter reported in their filings. If true, what is that called?
This Nature article describes the manufacturing life cycle of EV batteries. The ability to recycle spent batteries is the key to make EVs sustainable and to replace internal combustion engines. Much higher energy density battery technology is needed to provide longer driving range. https://nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02222-1
What are the constraints for hydrogen powered vehicles that EVs get all the love from governments and citizens? If somebody has seen peer reviewed studies / articles comparing the climate impact (from soup to nuts) of hydrogen V vs EV, please share - I would like to learn.
"That's the lamest excuse for not doing one's homework before turning it in."
@rforno- Having spent a significant portion of my school years evading homework, I'm curious as to what there is to turn in if one hasn't done it? Evidently I missed something important way back there...
"That's the lamest excuse for not doing one's homework before turning it in." @rforno- Having spent a significant portion of my school years evading homework, I'm curious as to what there is to turn in if one hasn't done it? Evidently I missed something important way back there...
Well, yes, he turned SOMETHING in, but it wasn't worthy of a grade.....and the professor in me says he didn't do the expected work.
Comments
“Mr. Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle Corp., agreed to put in $1 billion. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance.com, controlled by billionaire developer Changpeng Zhao, promised $500 million. Venture-capital firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are contributing $800 million and $400 million, respectively. Arms of asset managers Fidelity Investments and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. also will take part.”
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal - May 6, 2022
More money please, Derf
Will there be obstacles in the purchase? You bet! Re: The "Delay" Lawsuit - It's interesting that the plaintiff stands to gain $20M from the sale Edit/Add: and the pension fund will be negatively impacted (in a big way) if the sale doesn't go through. Oh, and if he had a pre-arrangement with Dorsey et al... why would he have threatened a "tender"? A tall leap by the pension fund and even a "pact" does not equal 15% single interested stockholder.
There's plenty of people against the idea. His financing and concentration will not be an obstacle. I'd bet on that.
Their logic stems from GM’s ongoing plans to develop fashionable all-electric vehicles vs. Toyota’s loyalty to “complicated” hybrids. GM might indeed be a better near term play as they suggest. But longer term my bet would be on Toyota’s quality build and engineering know-how. I think they overestimate a hybrid’s complexity. In many ways they’re simpler than an all gas vehicle. But I digress …
I'm wondering if the drive up lanes have shorten since gas hit $4 + a gallon. nothing like 6 to 10 cars or more waiting to get their food.
Have a good one, Derf
By the way, the survey that I mentioned did not include any Tesla charging stations- those are not available to the general public- only Tesla vehicles.
I get the distinct impression that many of the upcoming electric vehicles will start availability in the next couple of years. How many years does anyone think that it's going to take to get a reasonably sufficient charging infrastructure into place? And who exactly is going to pay for all of that?
None of this should be interpreted to suggest that I'm against the transition- in the long run, it's necessary. But I'm very skeptical that it's going to be a smooth one.
☞ Link to article: "California wants more electric cars. But many public chargers don’t work"
Electric is great for 90% of one’s driving which tends to be close to home. However, a mid sized hybrid gets nearly 50 mpg under those circumstances. A compact probably close to 60 mpg.. Of course, I’m highly biased owning a hybrid. And would love to own a Tesla! Unfortunately, the price of Teslas keeps rising while my portfolio keeps shrinking.
Everyone is holding their breath for the Truck, but who wants to spend that kinda money on a vehicle that won't go cross country or more than 300 miles?
Cousin in LA says three of his friends TSLAs just quit. Had to get new cars.
Recent seeking alpha article compared car companies on revenue, sales etc. TSLA stock far far overpriced. Not sue however why he has 2018 data in some of the charts. The contrasts between GM F and TSLA stock is stark
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4507535-tesla-overvalued-by-85-26-percent-and-not-a-technology-company
I bet he's figuring out that it's not worth using HIS money (or sinking TSLA shares) so why not coax or cajole others to pony up and help pay for his midlife crisis impulse-buying experience? Or perhaps put the deal 'on hold' to drive the stock lower to get more allies to snap up the cheaper shares so they can vote for whatever he wants to do .... i.e., it's market manipulation, but who cares, that's what he does.
The recent layoffs of senior execs along with the hiring freeze and cost control memos only reinforce how badly this company needs someone like Musk. Good for him in negotiating a better deal. Depending on what the new ask is, I would surprised if there's anyone out there that will outbid him. The market seems to agree.
Re: Market manipulation with this new development... please explain to me how potentially pulling out of the deal would positively impact Musk and his 9% of shares that he currently owns - which at the moment are worth a lot less.
Perhaps Musk knows more about the actual number of spam bots that exist and just maybe it greatly exceeds what Twitter reported in their filings. If true, what is that called?
https://nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02222-1
@rforno- Having spent a significant portion of my school years evading homework, I'm curious as to what there is to turn in if one hasn't done it? Evidently I missed something important way back there...