Earnings calls are usually pretty tame affairs: analysts ask questions about a company's performance, company executives answer, and that's a wrap. But on May 2, Elon Musk had a bizarre call with analysts that sent Tesla's
Musk seemed testy throughout the call. For instance, when an analyst from Bernstein tried to engage with Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja on a question about capital expenditures, Musk interrupted, "Excuse me. Next. Boring, bonehead questions are not cool." When another analyst from RBC Capital Markets then tried to ask about the Model 3 - Tesla's first attempt at a mass-market car, which has been rife with production problems - Musk simply refused to answer.
Musk then took the unorthodox approach of taking questions from a YouTube
Musk also took the call as an opportunity to rant about the media, calling journalists who have reported on Tesla car accidents that occurred when the vehicle's Autopilot feature was on "irresponsible" for making the public trust self-driving vehicles less.
Musk later apologized for the call on Twitter. Musk also released some of the specs on the upcoming Model 3, calling it "amazing," and perhaps doing some damage control.
Tesla has come under scrutiny lately over its cash flow and with the Tesla 3 production, which has been beset with delays and technical difficulties. This isn't the first time that Musk has lost his temper publicly, and some expected that he wouldn't have the patience to handle Tesla once it went public in 2010, particularly while he still helms SpaceX, a private company where Musk can focus on his idiosyncratic brand of innovation without dealing with the obligations of a public company.
- http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/02/technology/tesla-elon-musk-earnings-call/index.html
- https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-better-things-than-tesla/
- http://fortune.com/2018/05/03/elon-musk-tesla-wall-street-analysts-earnings/
- https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/992362594961780742
- https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/elon-musk-having-his-kanye-west-moment
- https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/992362594961780742