Elon Musk finally speaks publicly on what's going at Tesla, plans to stay independant, go public
Following the recent departure of co-founder Martin Eberhard from any active role at Tesla Motors there has been plenty of criticism of company Chairman Elon Musk in the comments here and elsewhere. For the two or three of you out not familiar with Elon Musk he made his fortune as one of the founders of PayPal. Subsequently he has invested in numerous ventures including private space programs, and notably to our readers, Tesla Motors. In all the discussion following Eberhard's departure, the voice of Elon Musk has been conspicuously absent. Following a town hall meeting for customers last week various bits of information came out including purported plans for handling the transmission problems on the Roadster and future vehicles. In a new post on the Tesla blog, Musk speaks for the first time since Eberhard's departure. It should come as no surprise that he doesn't discuss that issue, but he does indicate that Tesla has no intention of selling out to any other company, but instead wants to stay independent and grow, eventually as a public company. Future products include range extended EVs in addition to straight battery EVs. You can also find mp3 files of the town hall meeting on the site in three parts, here, here and here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2/LS7? 6:21PM (12/21/2007)
Ah, the final Silicon Valley scam. If you can't find additional private investors because they look closely and don't like what they see, then go public, because the public never looks that close.
Meanwhile, the founders can sell out their shares at the IPO.
If a company is such a great investment, why are the people who know the most about it selling instead of buying?
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Simon 7:01PM (12/21/2007)
This just seems like damage control to me. Personally I don't like the route that Tesla are going down. Most of all Martin's departure, but now this talk of watering down future models into serial hybrids. I like the EV or bust attitude. I also agree with Martin's quote the a world full of hybrids is still a world 100% dependent on oil.
If there is a company I'm rooting for now it has to be Project Better Place. They don't make cars but they are pushing pure EVs.
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Tony Belding 8:08PM (12/21/2007)
An IPO is probably the only way to raise the vast sums of capital needed to get into the car manufacturing business. Tesla are not rushing into an IPO, they are currently raising another round of private capital. An IPO is something they want to do in the future when the time is right.
A world full of hybrids is still 100% dependent on oil -- unless you have plug-in hybrids, which are the only kind that Tesla are looking at. Their stated goal is to get people driving on grid power. PHEVs are a valid, potentially quite attractive, path to achieving that.
Emotionally I'd prefer pure BEVs (meaning really-and-truly pure BEVS, not a "pure BEV with a range extender"), but the laws of physics are what they are, and people are accustomed to cars they can drive all day with minimal stops. It would be great if they were able to produce both BEV and PHEV versions, as Aptera are doing. Then the decision would be up to the buyer.
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BlackbirdHighway 8:52PM (12/21/2007)
There is no lack of private investors willing to put money into Tesla. In fact, I bet Cerberus Capital Management wished they had invested in Tesla instead of Chrysler.
Still, if you want to become one of the "great automobile companies of the 21st century", you'll eventually need public capital.
And founders don't sell shares at the IPO, there is a waiting period before any of the insiders can sell.
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why not the LS2/LS7? 1:40AM (12/22/2007)
No, Blackbirdhighway, founders typically do sell shares at the IPO. Non-founders typically do not.
Founders are subject to lockout just like everyone else, AFTER the IPO. But the initial shares sold at IPO will often include a portion of shares owned by founders.
I say this, since I have gone public with a company before. Almost 20% of the shares sold at IPO were from the founders, not newly issued shares. It's not unheard of for the venture capitalists to sell some shares at the IPO too. This is less common now with companies seeing large "pop" on the first day though.
Wait for the IPO on this thing. If it's really to raise capital, they'll sell a large percentage of the company, perhaps 20-40%, because they need the capital. But instead, it'll be one of the more common recent 10% floats, where the only point is to establish a stock value so the founders of the company can sell their shares for more money.
Sergei Brin isn't close to out of money yet. He could finance a lot of expansion before they really needed an IPO.
Pretty funny how you declare public capital is needed for an auto company while also mentioning the private owners of Chrysler.
Anyway, in the end, if they had a long line of private investors who really saw Tesla as a likely success, wouldn't those investors finance the expansion themselves? If they did, the profits would be theirs.
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why not the LS2/LS7? 1:41AM (12/22/2007)
Wow, I should have changed the first line. Typical isn't really what I meant. It's possible, legal, and not uncommon, but it's isn't typical right now.
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OhmExcited 1:33PM (12/22/2007)
Take the IPO money and run, creep.
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