Today, while Tesla is one of the most shorted stocks in the United States, few airdrops are on par with CEO Elon Musk.
Since its market value fell below trillion last week, Tesla's stock price has been hovering at a low price, which is also the third time this year that Tesla has entered a bear market. As of press time, Tesla's stock price is only $932.57, a 24% decline from the previous all-time high of $1229.91, and the market value has fallen to $936.5 billion.
At the same time, more bearish news continues to come. According to Reuters, an investor named David Wagner filed a lawsuit against Tesla in a court in delaware, USA. It believes that Musk's previous tweet vote on the sell-off of shares violated the agreement of the US securities regulator, and the board members, including Musk, did not comply with their fiduciary obligations.
Judging from a series of recent operations by Musk, whether it is selling stocks, shouting at lawmakers, compiling various titles for himself, or planning to resign as a full-time Internet celebrity, although as the head of Tesla, Musk is also a well-deserved "topic maker". At the same time, these "dangerous actions" are constantly stimulating the nerves of investors and short-selling capital.
Source: Google Screenshot
The court can't take care of Musk either
Wagner's lawsuit shows that Musk's reckless post violated a 2019 agreement Tesla reached with securities regulators that required Tesla to employ strict internal oversight procedures to monitor Musk's tweets.
The process of reviewing Musk's tweet dates back to 2018, when Musk tweeted the privatization of the stock, which caused Tesla's stock price to plummet, and Musk was also investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Eventually, Musk reached a settlement with the SEC, agreeing to get approval from the company's lawyers when posting a tweet of material information about Tesla.
Since the case, the SEC has written to Tesla in 2019 and 2020, asking questions about whether Musk's tweets were positively pre-approved. Apparently, Tesla and Musk didn't keep that pact.
According to Wagner's lawsuit, after Tesla's last full-time general counsel left in December 2019 and the most recent acting general counsel stepped down in April, "it's unclear who was reviewing Musk's tweets within Tesla."
It also caused Tesla's investors to suffer from Musk's tweets. Since Musk voted to sell his 10% stake in November, Musk has sold about $14 billion (about 90 billion yuan) of Tesla stock so far, and Tesla's stock price has fallen by more than 20%, and Tesla has officially entered a bear market.
However, the lawsuit said Musk was not intimidated by the agreement and continued to post statements on Twitter and social media that were significant to Tesla and its shareholders, "which will ultimately have an impact on Tesla's stock price." ”
This isn't the first time Musk has gotten into a lawsuit over Twitter. In March, Tesla shareholder Chase Gharrity took Musk to court, accusing him of violating the Twitter posting agreement reached with the SEC, and repeatedly issuing "non-compliant tweets" that led to a decline in Tesla's market value, including a tweet in May 2020 that Musk said Tesla's stock price was "overvalued", which reduced Tesla's market value by $14 billion in a single day.
According to Chase Gharrity's complaint, Tesla's board failed to discipline Musk as required by the SEC, resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses to Tesla investors.
"Musk has repeatedly violated the rules, but Tesla has not enforced control measures." Steven Buchholz, a senior SEC official, complained, "Tesla has abdicated its duties as required by the court order." ”
At present, the shareholders' lawsuit against Tesla and Musk has not yet come to an end, and a larger lawsuit has plunged Tesla into a whirlpool of bearishness again. Not long ago, U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase took Tesla to court, accusing Tesla of violating the warrant agreement and demanding that Tesla have a compensation period of more than $162 million.
The warrant agreement was signed in 2014, when Tesla sold the warrants to JPMorgan Chase & Co. and agreed on an "exercise price" of $560.6388, and if the Tesla stock price was higher than the "exercise price" by the expiration of the warrants in June and July 2021, JPMorgan Chase would be reimbursed.
For the multi-year deal, JPMorgan said it had the right to adjust the strike price in order to hedge against any major announcements related to a merger or acquisition that could affect Tesla's stock price.
This also led JPMorgan Chase to adjust the exercise price several times during this period, which Tesla questioned, calling JPMorgan Chase's adjustment "an opportunistic move to take advantage of the volatility of Tesla stock for profit."
JPMorgan chase said Tesla refused to settle in full, thus triggering an early termination clause, and Tesla still owed it 228775 shares when it terminated the transaction. Based on Tesla's share price and exercise price, the difference between the shares was about $162.2 million, so a lawsuit was filed in the local court to require Tesla to pay the corresponding amount immediately.
Will Tesla still be good?
In a way, the reason why Tesla's market value can run all the way is not unrelated to Musk's own aura. As a legend who aspires to land on Mars, Musk is at the helm of a number of cutting-edge technology companies, and was also selected by Time magazine as the Person of the Year, which has a high evaluation of Musk and even overshadowed the previous person of the year. "Almost no one can match his impact on life on Earth, or even on extraterrestrial life."
On the other hand, unlike the cautious words and deeds of other car company leaders, as the top Big V with nearly 70 million followers on Twitter, Musk is not only "active like a high imitation number", but also never considers managing his own words and deeds. However, this aura is like a double-edged sword, and Tesla's market value entered a bear market, largely because of Musk's self-release on Twitter.
Because of the forced donation, Musk and David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), have been publicly tough. Not long ago, 80-year-old US Congressman Bernie Sanders tweeted that extremely wealthy people should pay the taxes they deserve, and Musk responded unceremoniously: I have always forgotten that you are still alive.
Musk, who is sharp in his rhetoric on Twitter, has also been criticized by many people. Kunal Sawhney, chief executive of stock research firm Kalkine Group, said Tesla shares have been falling after Musk's sale, according to polls, and Musk mocked senior politicians on Twitter that could put more pressure on the stock in the coming weeks. This means that if Musk remains willful, it will have a greater negative impact on Tesla's stock price.
The negative and public opinion caused by Musk's tweet, resulting in a decline in Tesla's stock price, has become a foregone conclusion, and the negative impact of its tweet decision to reduce its stock price on Tesla may be greater than imagined.
As of now, Musk has only reduced his holdings by $14 billion, but Tesla's market value has been erased by more than $200 billion, equivalent to one-fifth of the total market value. In sharp contrast, it is also difficult not to doubt the inflated moisture in its market value.
Previously, Tesla's stock price has always been the focus of the bears, but for a long time, the bears have not been able to take too much advantage, and many times because of Musk's "eyebrows", they have to admit to leaving the market early, which has also aggravated the crazy rise of Tesla's stock price. However, a strange phenomenon is that the supporters of Tesla, who have always been bullish, have also begun to leave the market.
Source: Tesla
Cathie Wood, known as the "goddess of female stocks", is a hardcore Tesla fan, and she has more than once expressed her firm optimism about Tesla in public, believing that the stock price will rise to $3,000, but this year, she has begun to reduce her holdings in Tesla stock.
Another statistic is that Ark Investments, which Is Kathy Wood is running, has not performed well this year. Over the past six months, Ark's ETFs have lost a total of $1.7 billion in assets under management, with a net outflow of more than $1 billion from ARKG and a net outflow of nearly $900 million from ARKK, meaning that many investors have "abandoned" Wood. "I've never experienced a situation where the broader market is up and our investments are falling."
On the one hand, Musk's unscrupulousness on Twitter, on the other hand, the departure of bulls, even if Tesla has a "can't be empty" physique, it is difficult to resist the mountain roar tsunami of bearishness.
Despite the constant negative information, Tesla's position in the field of electric vehicles is still difficult to shake. Tesla's sales in the Chinese market continue to rise, and model Y sales once surpassed the Haval H6 to become the highest-selling SUV.
In the European market, Tesla is also riding the dust. According to foreign media site Drive Tesla Canada, total German car sales fell by 32% in November this year, while Tesla sales rose 234% against the trend. In addition, volkswagen group has used Tesla's Berlin plant as a template for its new electric vehicle factory in Germany.
Perhaps this is the "true face" of Tesla, even if there are too many negative and negative news, tesla's status can still not be replaced. This new energy car company that has just passed the 18-year-old coming-of-age ceremony has been moving closer to mature car companies between the rise and fall of the stock price, but no one knows where the ceiling of this company is.
The author | Qin Zhangyong
Edit the | Wang Yan