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Tesla’s Elon Musk: “I ran out of cash”
- pedalpete 16y agoI don't see why the personal finances of a CEO should be disclosed in a public offering. What is the risk to the public/shareholders? Would his personal finances ever be of discussion in the boardroom?
- gsmaverick 16y agoIt kind of is a risk to Tesla. Musk must keep a significant stake in the company in order to qualify for the DOE loan.
- andrewljohnson 16y agoRead the article... Musk participated in every single funding round for Tesla, until the last one. The fact that the company no longer has a source of investment that it has depended on since its inception is pertinent. And since Musk has so much money invested and such a big chunk of the company, I'm sure his personal finances have come up more than once in the board room.
- TimothyFitz 16y agoDid the article change? Currently it reads "According to the filing — part of his pending divorce case from sci-fi novelist Justine Musk" which answers your question succinctly.
- faramarz 16y agoI admire this guy so much, Hope things pick up for Tesla. It's a float issue. not like he's totally broke or financially incapable of taking future risks in his capacity with Tesla.
- DaniFong 16y agoHis ex, Justine Musk, says in her post 'golddigging' http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html "For those who want to know the extent of my golddigging, this is what I asked for, from my ex-husband and the father of my five children Elon Musk, who is a billionaire* and utterly brilliant. * albeit with cash/liquidity issues, which I would work with him to work around"
- jacquesm 16y agoMessy divorces are one very good reason for extremely strict shareholder agreements in startups. Startups can definitely cause bumps in your relationships with others, including your spouse and a messy divorce with a large enough block of shares at stake in a startup can kill the startup, at a minimum it will kill the chance of finding funding until the whole thing has played out and that can take years. Elon Musk is the best thing that happened to electric cars since the early 1900's, it would be a pity if this divorce caused that to be torn apart. How does this all relate to SpaceX, is there any chance of fall-out in that direction ?
- neurotech1 16y agoI agree completely with the need for shareholder agreements. As for SpaceX, they almost certainly have a milestone payment after the Falcon 9 test flight in the next few weeks. That and they'd make a good investment for anyone who would like to use their services in the future, both satellite and manned space flights. Edit: They are due $5m in payments after the Falcon 9 flight.
- mturmon 16y ago"messy divorce": http://moschus.livejournal.com/141570.html http://moschus.livejournal.com/141570.html Suddenly, everyone is broke: http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html http://moschus.livejournal.com/140610.html
- catch23 16y agoHoly crap... that wife is definitely sketch. How in the world did he end up with her?
- sbierwagen 16y agoThinking with his genitalia, perhaps? Check out her biblography! I'm the author of three published novels: the dark fantasies BLOODANGEL and LORD OF BONES (Roc/Penguin) and the YA supernatural thriller UNINVITED (MTV/Simon&Schuster). I also have stories in the MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRE ROMANCE 2 and ZOMBIES: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE HUNGRY DEAD.
- antidaily 16y agoWell, she appears to be fairly attractive.
- chasingsparks 16y agoYes, especially considering her profession. The women I know who are into sci-fi do not look like that.
- Aetius 16y agoalimony and child support 6 million cash 10 percent of his stock in Tesla 5 percent of his stock in SpaceX (and he retains all voting rights) and a Tesla Roadster (I really, really want one...) I don't want to go through the trouble of normalizing this wish list into a scalar percentage, but it seems like a lot less than half of his assets... Would you take the deal?
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- metaguri 16y agoHe is an inspirational dude. I can't find a direct quote, but when I read the article posted here some time ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=458090) I got the sense that he wants to change the world, and potentially going broke doing it is an unfortunate but permissible side-effect. Given the various posts about "what to do with my millions" today, I think what Musk has chosen to do with his capital provides a poignant perspective.
- hristov 16y agoHehe, nothing like divorce case to make a billionaire plead poverty. If, God forbid, Melinda ever divorces Bill, I expect him to argue that those Microsoft shares are really not worth the paper they are printed on.
- mkramlich 16y agoI think what he's doing with Tesla and SpaceX are very important for the country and really the world, so I hope enough folks with deep pockets can step up to the plate and help out his/their cash situation. We need more companies/endeavors like Tesla and SpaceX.
- barmstrong 16y agoInteresting. I just read Tony Hsieh's book (CEO of Zappos) and he has a similar story where he actually almost went broke at one point (down from maybe $100m net worth) trying to keep Zappos alive as it's sole investor when everyone else backed out. Of course, he ended up selling it to Amazon for over a billion, so it worked for him. Hope it also works out for Elon. It's a testament to how much he really believes in the company.
- FlorinAndrei 16y agoWow, did you know Elon Musk has a cameo in Iron Man 2? I didn't either. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits Elon Musk ... Himself
- arohner 16y agoYeah, so did Larry Ellison. Iron Man 2 gave me a new motivation for making my startup successful. "I want my startup to be successful so I can be in the movies some day!"
- stumm 16y agoTony Stark's character was supposedly modeled after Musk.
- MikeCapone 16y agoHow is that possible? Isn't Iron Man from the 1960s?
- alex_c 16y agoThe movie's interpretation of Tony Stark is inspired by Elon Musk.
- MikeCapone 16y agoI'm not sure I see it (and I met Musk briefly at the Detroit Auto Show and I've been following him for years), but that's possible. What's your source on this?
- alex_c 16y agoJon Favreau: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1984685_1984745_1985495,00.html http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1... I don't really see it myself, but I don't know much about Elon Musk. If I had to guess, I would've said Sir Richard Branson.