11 ms·

Tesla, Inc. 8-k filing – CFO leaves Tesla

90 points by freedude 3y ago

freedude 3y ago
Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Principal Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Principal Officers. As of August 4, 2023, Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) appointed Vaibhav Taneja as Chief Financial Officer in addition to his current role as Chief Accounting Officer, to succeed Zachary Kirkhorn. Mr. Kirkhorn stepped down as of August 4, after a thirteen-year tenure with the company, the last four years of which he has served as Master of Coin and Chief Financial Officer. During his tenure, Tesla has seen tremendous expansion and growth. Tesla thanks Mr. Kirkhorn for his significant contributions. Mr. Kirkhorn will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition. Prior to this appointment as CFO, Mr. Taneja, 45, served as Tesla’s Chief Accounting Officer since March 2019, as Corporate Controller from May 2018, and as Assistant Corporate Controller between February 2017 and May 2018. Mr. Taneja served in various finance and accounting roles at SolarCity Corporation from March 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Taneja was employed at PricewaterhouseCoopers in both India and the U.S. between July 1999 and March 2016.
- bawolff 3y ago
  For anyone else wondering, the master of the coin title is just musk being trying to be cute https://winteriscoming.net/2021/03/16/tesla-executive-officially-changes-title-master-coin-elon-musk-game-of-thrones/ https://winteriscoming.net/2021/03/16/tesla-executive-offici... . For a moment i was wondering if that was an actual common corporate title.
  - kccqzy 3y ago
    Also mentioned in your link: He also named himself technoking in addition to CEO.
  - justapassenger 3y ago
    It was more of an attempt to get another day of media attention, and to make some bucks during crypto/investment craze of COVID times, by presenting themselves as a “cool company”.
  - toolz 3y ago
    Maybe more charitably stated, it's a fun title to break the monotony of common titles. Surely just because we disagree with musk on other decisions we don't have to denigrate some harmless fun. I welcome the day where we treat business less seriously.
    - TylerE 3y ago
      I'm sure the reams of people Musk pushed out at his various companies are just rollin' in the aisles over that one.
      - bluefishinit 3y ago
        Or any of the Tesla workers that have been subject to the company's culture of racism: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-25/black-tesla-employees-fremont-plant-racism-california-lawsuit https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-25/black-tesl...
      - _ea1k 3y ago
        That likely generalizes to all the ones that are overworked and underpaid too. Fair point.
    - hypeit 3y ago
      > I welcome the day where we treat business less seriously. Teslas can and do kill people. Taking business "less seriously" is how you do things like remove lidar and label the hobbled driver assist as "full self-driving". I doubt people who have had family members killed by a Tesla think these titles are cute and "fun".
      - blitz_skull 3y ago
        [flagged]
        hypeit 3y ago
        I don't trust the car to drive itself. I wouldn't trust a Musk car in any capacity! The problem is when some Musk fanboy plows through people because FSD goes haywire. That's not social darwinism, that's manslaughter.
gabrielsroka 3y ago
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023038779/tsla-20230804.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023...
- zgluck 3y ago
  That was 4 days ago and this is the first we hear of it? This - 9 hours ago: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-cfo-kirkhorn-steps-down-replaced-by-chief-accounting-officer-vaibhav-taneja-134446641.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-cfo-kirkhorn-steps-down... Tesla CFO Kirkhorn steps down, replaced by chief accounting officer Vaibhav Taneja Kirkhorn stepped down after a 13-year run at Tesla. (HN is slow.)
  - mtmail 3y ago
    Bottom of the 8-K document says "Date: August 7, 2023". So possibly (I'm not familiar with SEC filings) filed late Friday after business hours Aug/4h and then it got published by SEC Monday Aug/7th at start of business day?
    - hbcondo714 3y ago
      Yeah, the Period of Report is Friday 2023-08-04 while it was Accepted on Monday 2023-08-07 09:02:20 EST Source: https://last10k.com/sec-filings/tsla/0000950170-23-038779.htm https://last10k.com/sec-filings/tsla/0000950170-23-038779.ht... Authoritative Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023038779/0000950170-23-038779-index.html https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023...
zgluck 3y ago
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688662299857321984 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688662299857321984 I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years. Much appreciated and best wishes for the next stage of his career.
- LightBug1 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - zgluck 3y ago
    [flagged]
- Shawnj2 3y ago
  Elon Musk being polite? Now that’s concerning
  - elkos 3y ago
    Looking into it.
andreygrehov 3y ago
People come, people leave. Why is that a big news?
- revel 3y ago
  The CFO leaving is always a big deal. It can mean nothing but it can also mean a really spectacular blowup is about to take place.
  - andreygrehov 3y ago
    It's always a big deal, but can also mean nothing? So, pure speculation?
    - cududa 3y ago
      The vast majority of the time it’s a big deal, which makes it newsworthy. As well, any well run company would announce at least a few quarters in advance that the CFO is leaving. They don’t abruptly quit or get fired after 13 years without something brewing
      - andreygrehov 3y ago
        With respect, I do not think this is a newsworthy case. > Mr. Kirkhorn will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition. Absolutely zero things to discuss here.
        projectazorian 3y ago
        This isn’t the own you think it is. C-level execs are often contractually obliged to serve out lengthy notice periods, a quarter and some change is nothing unusual.
        whinenot 3y ago
        You must be new here. Many companies keep ex-C-levels nominally employed as 'consultants' so their stock can vest (which is typically the bulk of their compensation) and avoid any expensive/public lawsuits. It's paying them off to quietly go away without spending any cash.
uberdru 3y ago
Revenue recognition around FSD has been incredibly dodgy. Just sayin'.
- bluefishinit 3y ago
  And robotaxis never happened, and the cybertruck (hideous as it is) is years behind schedule... So much of Tesla's valuation is built on nothing more than empty Musk promises. The CFO seems like someone who will be taking a lot of heat when reality comes to roost. No wonder he's leaving.
- jcampbell1 3y ago
  Dodgy in what way? This kind of thing is where none would do creative accounting. Accountants just propose a plan and get the auditor to sign off on it, or suggest modifications. In the auto business, if the CFO wants to hit a number for the CEO, warranty accounting is the place to play games.
pdq 3y ago
Not good when a CFO abruptly resigns (or is fired). Usually companies project this quarters ahead to the public, with a soft notice that "XYZ will be retiring next year". Yes, Kirkhorn "will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition", but this reads as a rush notice. His IR page is also gone: https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/zachary-kirkhorn https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/zachary-kirkhorn
- dvt 3y ago
  > Yes, Kirkhorn "will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition", but this reads as a rush notice. I don't own any $TSLA (or one of their cars), but this is like the opposite of a rush notice. Heck, he will continue working for Tesla for almost half the year. Seems like typical HN "everything Elon does is bad" bandwagoning. I mean, just earlier today the HP CFO resigned[1] and was replaced immediately. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hewlett-packard-enterprise-cfo-leaves-223151780.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hewlett-packard-enterprise-cf...
  - throwaway914 3y ago
    but like.. objectively what he does is bad. I wish there were a smaller bandwagon to bandwagon-onto.
    - uristohkrat 3y ago
      Expand upon your idea: 'but like.. objectively what he does is bad'
      - gscho 3y ago
        Not the OP but we could mention that time where he called a hero a pedophile or when he bought twitter to promote free speech and then banned anyone who said negative things about him. No one human should have 260 billion dollars and be thought of as a good person unless they do a ton of philanthropy.
lyapunova 3y ago
Whether the CFO leaving is a "canary" or not, I think there is ample evidence that Tesla's overall value proposition is grossly misaligned with its current valuation (futures priced-in). I would not blame people for using this as an excuse to weaken their positions on Tesla. I am invested and have been for almost a decade, for the record.
- wonderwonder 3y ago
  How much of Tesla do you think is Musk? For example, if Zuck choked Musk to death in a cage fight, what do you think would happen to the stock? Obviously the odds of this happening are close to 0 but after investing heavily in Tesla I came to the conclusion (perhaps wrongly) that a good deal of the value in tesla stock is tied to Musk. He could get hit by a bus tomorrow. So I sold and put it all in an index fund that still holds tesla but on a more diluted basis. Just curious about your outlook on it.
  - fbdab103 3y ago
    I could see it cutting both ways. Some people love Musk and assume Tesla is only supported by the sweat of his brow. Others view him as an impediment to making good business decisions. Hard to judge which camp is bigger. On the gripping hand, I personally believe Tesla is over-valued and it only takes a watershed moment for investors to determine the emperor is wearing no clothes which could cause the stock to plummet.
  - ChuckMcM 3y ago
    The more I see of Musk on Twitter the lower I judge his future impact at Tesla. Tesla going forward is going to have to grow its customer facing side and Musk seems unsuited to solving problems that involve humans and emotions. Could be completely wrong of course, often am. That said, I too divested myself 100%.
    - specialist 3y ago
      Having 𝕏 distract Musk may prove to be a boon for both SpaceX and Tesla. From the cheap seats, it looks like both have terrific strategies and now need to be left alone to execute.
1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago
This reminds me of some years ago when the General Counsel left after only two months on the job. Then his replacement left several months later. Nice. I enjoy reading the responses when news comes out of Telsa, no matter how troubling, it's usually something like "Everything is fine". No doubt, but quite a few folks really do not want to work there, no matter how much money is on the table. What is the company culture. https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-executive-departures-list-2018-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-executive-departures-l... https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-executive-departures-list-2018-9 https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...
- TheAlchemist 3y ago
  Per Musk admission, Tesla was indeed at the brink of bankruptcy at the time - so that many key people leaving was most probably not 'nothing'. Tesla was 'saved' in part thanks to Covid and the ensuing chips shortage, massively inflating car prices. Things are coming back to earth now - and so do car prices, especially EVs as the competitions is catching up. Those absurd projections that Musk keep making, are quite hard to back up.
  - Tade0 3y ago
    > especially EVs as the competitions is catching up. I want to ask "are they though?". A while ago Tesla slashed prices by close to 10% for some models, which caused quite a stir and weird statements from their competitors, like "we won't be doing the same because we care about resale value". As it stands their offerings are roughly on par in pricing to non-premium brands offering the same(or less) features. Their only real competition in terms of pricing are Chinese brands, who have ample capital to play the race-to-the-bottom game.
starchild3001 3y ago
Given the animosity Elon Musk has displayed towards former and current Xitter employees, it should surprise us more that people keep working with him. People leaving him is not surprising. Deciding to work with him is surprising.
- lyapunova 3y ago
  Serious question - not trying to be cute or funny - is Xitter pronounced like "sitter", "ksitter", or "shitter"?
  - TheDong 3y ago
    Since you say it's a serious question, even though it's pretty unrelated to this thread, I'll give a serious answer. First, 'xitter' isn't an official term related to x/twitter, so there's no official pronunciation. 'Xi' also doesn't occur in english much at all, so there's not much to draw on. My dictionary just has "Xiphoid", where the 'X' is pronounced as a 'Z'. To my american-english mind, the obvious sound is "Z", like in "xenogenic" or "xenophobic". Or "xylophone". Basically, "x" at the beginning of a word is always a Z sound if a vowel sound follows, and an "ex" sound in exceptions like "X-Ray" and so on. The only exception to the above is loanwords, notably chinese ones. In words like "Xian", for example, the "X" is pronounced close to the english soft "J" sound (like in Jacques) So, summarizing, the majority of native english speakers, I believe, will read that as "Zitter", unless told it's a chinese word. There's no official pronunciation, so feel free to pick your own favorite though. This is english, pronunciations aren't wrong or right, they're just vibes.
    - tamimio 3y ago
      Also to add, Xeon (the processor) pronounced Zee-aan, Xenon (the gas) pronounced Zee-naan.
    - Tade0 3y ago
      > In words like "Xian", for example, the "X" is pronounced close to the english soft "J" sound (like in Jacques) The sound you're describing is represented as "j" I think. The closest equivalent I can think of that we have in Indo-European languages is ɕ, or ś. Source: https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/The_%22j%22_%22q%22_and_%22x%22_sounds https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/T...
7e 3y ago
Four CFOs in the last six years at Tesla.

90 points by freedude 3y ago

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Principal Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Principal Officers. As of August 4, 2023, Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) appointed Vaibhav Taneja as Chief Financial Officer in addition to his current role as Chief Accounting Officer, to succeed Zachary Kirkhorn. Mr. Kirkhorn stepped down as of August 4, after a thirteen-year tenure with the company, the last four years of which he has served as Master of Coin and Chief Financial Officer. During his tenure, Tesla has seen tremendous expansion and growth. Tesla thanks Mr. Kirkhorn for his significant contributions. Mr. Kirkhorn will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition. Prior to this appointment as CFO, Mr. Taneja, 45, served as Tesla’s Chief Accounting Officer since March 2019, as Corporate Controller from May 2018, and as Assistant Corporate Controller between February 2017 and May 2018. Mr. Taneja served in various finance and accounting roles at SolarCity Corporation from March 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Taneja was employed at PricewaterhouseCoopers in both India and the U.S. between July 1999 and March 2016.

bawolff 3y ago
For anyone else wondering, the master of the coin title is just musk being trying to be cute https://winteriscoming.net/2021/03/16/tesla-executive-officially-changes-title-master-coin-elon-musk-game-of-thrones/ https://winteriscoming.net/2021/03/16/tesla-executive-offici... . For a moment i was wondering if that was an actual common corporate title.
- kccqzy 3y ago
  Also mentioned in your link: He also named himself technoking in addition to CEO.
- justapassenger 3y ago
  It was more of an attempt to get another day of media attention, and to make some bucks during crypto/investment craze of COVID times, by presenting themselves as a “cool company”.
- toolz 3y ago
  Maybe more charitably stated, it's a fun title to break the monotony of common titles. Surely just because we disagree with musk on other decisions we don't have to denigrate some harmless fun. I welcome the day where we treat business less seriously.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    I'm sure the reams of people Musk pushed out at his various companies are just rollin' in the aisles over that one.
    - bluefishinit 3y ago
      Or any of the Tesla workers that have been subject to the company's culture of racism: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-25/black-tesla-employees-fremont-plant-racism-california-lawsuit https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-25/black-tesl...
    - _ea1k 3y ago
      That likely generalizes to all the ones that are overworked and underpaid too. Fair point.
  - hypeit 3y ago
    > I welcome the day where we treat business less seriously. Teslas can and do kill people. Taking business "less seriously" is how you do things like remove lidar and label the hobbled driver assist as "full self-driving". I doubt people who have had family members killed by a Tesla think these titles are cute and "fun".
    - blitz_skull 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - hypeit 3y ago
        I don't trust the car to drive itself. I wouldn't trust a Musk car in any capacity! The problem is when some Musk fanboy plows through people because FSD goes haywire. That's not social darwinism, that's manslaughter.

gabrielsroka 3y ago

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023038779/tsla-20230804.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023...

zgluck 3y ago
That was 4 days ago and this is the first we hear of it? This - 9 hours ago: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-cfo-kirkhorn-steps-down-replaced-by-chief-accounting-officer-vaibhav-taneja-134446641.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-cfo-kirkhorn-steps-down... Tesla CFO Kirkhorn steps down, replaced by chief accounting officer Vaibhav Taneja Kirkhorn stepped down after a 13-year run at Tesla. (HN is slow.)
- mtmail 3y ago
  Bottom of the 8-K document says "Date: August 7, 2023". So possibly (I'm not familiar with SEC filings) filed late Friday after business hours Aug/4h and then it got published by SEC Monday Aug/7th at start of business day?
  - hbcondo714 3y ago
    Yeah, the Period of Report is Friday 2023-08-04 while it was Accepted on Monday 2023-08-07 09:02:20 EST Source: https://last10k.com/sec-filings/tsla/0000950170-23-038779.htm https://last10k.com/sec-filings/tsla/0000950170-23-038779.ht... Authoritative Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023038779/0000950170-23-038779-index.html https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000095017023...

zgluck 3y ago

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688662299857321984 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688662299857321984 I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years. Much appreciated and best wishes for the next stage of his career.

LightBug1 3y ago
[flagged]
- zgluck 3y ago
  [flagged]
Shawnj2 3y ago
Elon Musk being polite? Now that’s concerning
- elkos 3y ago
  Looking into it.

andreygrehov 3y ago

People come, people leave. Why is that a big news?

revel 3y ago
The CFO leaving is always a big deal. It can mean nothing but it can also mean a really spectacular blowup is about to take place.
- andreygrehov 3y ago
  It's always a big deal, but can also mean nothing? So, pure speculation?
  - cududa 3y ago
    The vast majority of the time it’s a big deal, which makes it newsworthy. As well, any well run company would announce at least a few quarters in advance that the CFO is leaving. They don’t abruptly quit or get fired after 13 years without something brewing
    - andreygrehov 3y ago
      With respect, I do not think this is a newsworthy case. > Mr. Kirkhorn will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition. Absolutely zero things to discuss here.
      - projectazorian 3y ago
        This isn’t the own you think it is. C-level execs are often contractually obliged to serve out lengthy notice periods, a quarter and some change is nothing unusual.
      - whinenot 3y ago
        You must be new here. Many companies keep ex-C-levels nominally employed as 'consultants' so their stock can vest (which is typically the bulk of their compensation) and avoid any expensive/public lawsuits. It's paying them off to quietly go away without spending any cash.

uberdru 3y ago

Revenue recognition around FSD has been incredibly dodgy. Just sayin'.

bluefishinit 3y ago
And robotaxis never happened, and the cybertruck (hideous as it is) is years behind schedule... So much of Tesla's valuation is built on nothing more than empty Musk promises. The CFO seems like someone who will be taking a lot of heat when reality comes to roost. No wonder he's leaving.
jcampbell1 3y ago
Dodgy in what way? This kind of thing is where none would do creative accounting. Accountants just propose a plan and get the auditor to sign off on it, or suggest modifications. In the auto business, if the CFO wants to hit a number for the CEO, warranty accounting is the place to play games.

pdq 3y ago

Not good when a CFO abruptly resigns (or is fired). Usually companies project this quarters ahead to the public, with a soft notice that "XYZ will be retiring next year". Yes, Kirkhorn "will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition", but this reads as a rush notice. His IR page is also gone: https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/zachary-kirkhorn https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/zachary-kirkhorn

dvt 3y ago
> Yes, Kirkhorn "will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition", but this reads as a rush notice. I don't own any $TSLA (or one of their cars), but this is like the opposite of a rush notice. Heck, he will continue working for Tesla for almost half the year. Seems like typical HN "everything Elon does is bad" bandwagoning. I mean, just earlier today the HP CFO resigned[1] and was replaced immediately. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hewlett-packard-enterprise-cfo-leaves-223151780.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hewlett-packard-enterprise-cf...
- throwaway914 3y ago
  but like.. objectively what he does is bad. I wish there were a smaller bandwagon to bandwagon-onto.
  - uristohkrat 3y ago
    Expand upon your idea: 'but like.. objectively what he does is bad'
    - gscho 3y ago
      Not the OP but we could mention that time where he called a hero a pedophile or when he bought twitter to promote free speech and then banned anyone who said negative things about him. No one human should have 260 billion dollars and be thought of as a good person unless they do a ton of philanthropy.

lyapunova 3y ago

Whether the CFO leaving is a "canary" or not, I think there is ample evidence that Tesla's overall value proposition is grossly misaligned with its current valuation (futures priced-in). I would not blame people for using this as an excuse to weaken their positions on Tesla. I am invested and have been for almost a decade, for the record.

wonderwonder 3y ago
How much of Tesla do you think is Musk? For example, if Zuck choked Musk to death in a cage fight, what do you think would happen to the stock? Obviously the odds of this happening are close to 0 but after investing heavily in Tesla I came to the conclusion (perhaps wrongly) that a good deal of the value in tesla stock is tied to Musk. He could get hit by a bus tomorrow. So I sold and put it all in an index fund that still holds tesla but on a more diluted basis. Just curious about your outlook on it.
- fbdab103 3y ago
  I could see it cutting both ways. Some people love Musk and assume Tesla is only supported by the sweat of his brow. Others view him as an impediment to making good business decisions. Hard to judge which camp is bigger. On the gripping hand, I personally believe Tesla is over-valued and it only takes a watershed moment for investors to determine the emperor is wearing no clothes which could cause the stock to plummet.
- ChuckMcM 3y ago
  The more I see of Musk on Twitter the lower I judge his future impact at Tesla. Tesla going forward is going to have to grow its customer facing side and Musk seems unsuited to solving problems that involve humans and emotions. Could be completely wrong of course, often am. That said, I too divested myself 100%.
  - specialist 3y ago
    Having 𝕏 distract Musk may prove to be a boon for both SpaceX and Tesla. From the cheap seats, it looks like both have terrific strategies and now need to be left alone to execute.

1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago

This reminds me of some years ago when the General Counsel left after only two months on the job. Then his replacement left several months later. Nice. I enjoy reading the responses when news comes out of Telsa, no matter how troubling, it's usually something like "Everything is fine". No doubt, but quite a few folks really do not want to work there, no matter how much money is on the table. What is the company culture. https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-executive-departures-list-2018-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-executive-departures-l... https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-executive-departures-list-2018-9 https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...

TheAlchemist 3y ago
Per Musk admission, Tesla was indeed at the brink of bankruptcy at the time - so that many key people leaving was most probably not 'nothing'. Tesla was 'saved' in part thanks to Covid and the ensuing chips shortage, massively inflating car prices. Things are coming back to earth now - and so do car prices, especially EVs as the competitions is catching up. Those absurd projections that Musk keep making, are quite hard to back up.
- Tade0 3y ago
  > especially EVs as the competitions is catching up. I want to ask "are they though?". A while ago Tesla slashed prices by close to 10% for some models, which caused quite a stir and weird statements from their competitors, like "we won't be doing the same because we care about resale value". As it stands their offerings are roughly on par in pricing to non-premium brands offering the same(or less) features. Their only real competition in terms of pricing are Chinese brands, who have ample capital to play the race-to-the-bottom game.

starchild3001 3y ago

Given the animosity Elon Musk has displayed towards former and current Xitter employees, it should surprise us more that people keep working with him. People leaving him is not surprising. Deciding to work with him is surprising.

lyapunova 3y ago
Serious question - not trying to be cute or funny - is Xitter pronounced like "sitter", "ksitter", or "shitter"?
- TheDong 3y ago
  Since you say it's a serious question, even though it's pretty unrelated to this thread, I'll give a serious answer. First, 'xitter' isn't an official term related to x/twitter, so there's no official pronunciation. 'Xi' also doesn't occur in english much at all, so there's not much to draw on. My dictionary just has "Xiphoid", where the 'X' is pronounced as a 'Z'. To my american-english mind, the obvious sound is "Z", like in "xenogenic" or "xenophobic". Or "xylophone". Basically, "x" at the beginning of a word is always a Z sound if a vowel sound follows, and an "ex" sound in exceptions like "X-Ray" and so on. The only exception to the above is loanwords, notably chinese ones. In words like "Xian", for example, the "X" is pronounced close to the english soft "J" sound (like in Jacques) So, summarizing, the majority of native english speakers, I believe, will read that as "Zitter", unless told it's a chinese word. There's no official pronunciation, so feel free to pick your own favorite though. This is english, pronunciations aren't wrong or right, they're just vibes.
  - tamimio 3y ago
    Also to add, Xeon (the processor) pronounced Zee-aan, Xenon (the gas) pronounced Zee-naan.
  - Tade0 3y ago
    > In words like "Xian", for example, the "X" is pronounced close to the english soft "J" sound (like in Jacques) The sound you're describing is represented as "j" I think. The closest equivalent I can think of that we have in Indo-European languages is ɕ, or ś. Source: https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/The_%22j%22_%22q%22_and_%22x%22_sounds https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/T...

7e 3y ago

Four CFOs in the last six years at Tesla.