3 ms·

Elon could turn Tesla's car business around by apologizing, letting go of his extreme compensation claims, keeping shares of only 15% instead of 25% and working

by quonn 1y ago

Elon could turn Tesla's car business around by apologizing, letting go of his extreme compensation claims, keeping shares of only 15% instead of 25% and working pro bono in the future. Otherwise it is difficult to see how they could still succeed, even if they ever manage to produce a perfect FSD. He brought this on himself.

atemerev 1y ago
Can't turn this around. We remember all he did. The only way to turn it around would be to resign as Tesla CEO.
- timbit42 1y ago
  That wouldn't be enough. He still owns a chunk of the stock.
skeletal88 1y ago
No idea why you are downvoted. He should apologise,stay quiet, not get involved in politics or try to influence elections in Europe by supporting far right or other extreme parties.
- xxs 1y ago
  Mostly b/c it's way too late, and it's unlikely an apology to be taken genuinely
  - quonn 1y ago
    My point was the apology could be taken genuinely if he backs it up by somewhat painful actions (financially and in terms of control). Of course this is very unlikely to happen.
tacker2000 1y ago
Not sure if he can salvage it at this point. Even if he steps away completely, the brand is still damaged and the competition is catching up pretty fast.
fhd2 1y ago
I think it's not that easy. Musk was _extremely_ present in the media for months and months. Whatever apology or change of heart he could do, he would need to manage to get a similar level of exposure for that. If he's no longer involved in politics (a change of heart probably wouldn't exactly help with that), I don't know if that's even possible. Perhaps if his companies have a number of major breakthroughs or at least new promises. And that's not even considering how a change of heart would probably hurt his government connections and other funding sources in the near future. His best chance is possibly to stay on course but tone it down, and generate some (at least perceived) successes with his companies. If he can stay in the game for another couple of years, I'd bet consumers will have mostly forgotten and focus on the products they're getting. I'm not exactly a fan of the CEOs of most companies I'm a customer of. Musk managed to be too much for many, but I don't think that'll stick for very long.
siiffii4828 1y ago
Or just cash in any shorts/hedges as the company tumbles and buy it back for pennies if it’s worth his trouble in the future. Meanwhile ride a few more hyped statements to pick up some swings to the upside
- ben_w 1y ago
  That sounds like it should be illegal and might even actually be illegal, but with the current US administration and DOGE he might get away with it anyway.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
ndsipa_pomu 1y ago
If Elon wants to repair his/Tesla's image, then he could use some of his immense wealth to feed/clothe/house the world's poor
thaumasiotes 1y ago
Hm. Do any of those have something to do with making better cars?
rurp 1y ago
In other words, give up the everything wants out of running Tesla? I don't see that happening. He has been working extremely hard to extract as much value as possible out of Tesla, at an unprecedented rate. He wants to be paid more than the company has ever made selling cars! Comparable CEOs take small or no salary and make their money by growing the value of their equity. Musk wants to improve the value of his massive existing equity and be paid tens of billions of dollars on top of that, in multiple packages. Before his first payout got held up in court he was already pressuring the company to give him another unprecedented handout. To state the obvious, nobody becomes the wealthiest person in the world by not caring about money. They might pretend to not care, but acquiring that level of wealth takes a lot of dedicated focus to accomplish.

by quonn 1y ago

atemerev 1y ago

Can't turn this around. We remember all he did. The only way to turn it around would be to resign as Tesla CEO.

timbit42 1y ago
That wouldn't be enough. He still owns a chunk of the stock.

skeletal88 1y ago

No idea why you are downvoted. He should apologise,stay quiet, not get involved in politics or try to influence elections in Europe by supporting far right or other extreme parties.

xxs 1y ago
Mostly b/c it's way too late, and it's unlikely an apology to be taken genuinely
- quonn 1y ago
  My point was the apology could be taken genuinely if he backs it up by somewhat painful actions (financially and in terms of control). Of course this is very unlikely to happen.

tacker2000 1y ago

Not sure if he can salvage it at this point. Even if he steps away completely, the brand is still damaged and the competition is catching up pretty fast.

fhd2 1y ago

I think it's not that easy. Musk was _extremely_ present in the media for months and months. Whatever apology or change of heart he could do, he would need to manage to get a similar level of exposure for that. If he's no longer involved in politics (a change of heart probably wouldn't exactly help with that), I don't know if that's even possible. Perhaps if his companies have a number of major breakthroughs or at least new promises. And that's not even considering how a change of heart would probably hurt his government connections and other funding sources in the near future. His best chance is possibly to stay on course but tone it down, and generate some (at least perceived) successes with his companies. If he can stay in the game for another couple of years, I'd bet consumers will have mostly forgotten and focus on the products they're getting. I'm not exactly a fan of the CEOs of most companies I'm a customer of. Musk managed to be too much for many, but I don't think that'll stick for very long.

siiffii4828 1y ago

Or just cash in any shorts/hedges as the company tumbles and buy it back for pennies if it’s worth his trouble in the future. Meanwhile ride a few more hyped statements to pick up some swings to the upside

ben_w 1y ago
That sounds like it should be illegal and might even actually be illegal, but with the current US administration and DOGE he might get away with it anyway.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

ndsipa_pomu 1y ago

If Elon wants to repair his/Tesla's image, then he could use some of his immense wealth to feed/clothe/house the world's poor

thaumasiotes 1y ago

Hm. Do any of those have something to do with making better cars?

rurp 1y ago

In other words, give up the everything wants out of running Tesla? I don't see that happening. He has been working extremely hard to extract as much value as possible out of Tesla, at an unprecedented rate. He wants to be paid more than the company has ever made selling cars! Comparable CEOs take small or no salary and make their money by growing the value of their equity. Musk wants to improve the value of his massive existing equity and be paid tens of billions of dollars on top of that, in multiple packages. Before his first payout got held up in court he was already pressuring the company to give him another unprecedented handout. To state the obvious, nobody becomes the wealthiest person in the world by not caring about money. They might pretend to not care, but acquiring that level of wealth takes a lot of dedicated focus to accomplish.