Musk, Buffett trade barbs; YouTuber gets time on Tesla conference call
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for many things, including upending the model for producing and marketing electric cars. So, it should probably have come as no surprise that, when Tesla held its quarterly conference call last week, Musk preferred to answer the questions from someone who wasn’t the typical Wall Street analyst.
In fact, the person Musk seemed to appreciate the most on his one-of-a-kind question-and-answer session wasn’t a Wall Street analyst at all. It was Galileo Russell, a 25-year-old who hosts a show on YouTube called “HyperChange TV” that focuses on the business of technology companies. As of Monday morning, Russell’s channel had 14,200 subscribers.
In Russell’s opinion, the 23-minute Q&A just broke the model Wall Street watchers have always used to get information about the companies they follow.
“Analysts better step up to the plate and ask better questions or be prepared that more people like me will be on these calls,” Russell said in an interview over the weekend with Bloomberg.
On Tesla’s call, Musk described some analysts’ questions as “dry,” “boring” and “bonehead.” But when Russell got on the call, it was one of the few times the Tesla CEO actually acted like he wanted to talk about his company’s business.
“Basically, the entire Wall Street model just got disrupted,” Russell told Bloomberg.
Russell’s appearance on the Tesla call wasn’t a complete surprise. Prior to the call, Musk went to Twitter and told Russell that he would take his questions during the post-earningsrelease conference call.
“Elon just opened a Pandora’s box, and it’s a super interesting development,” Russell told Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Musk couldn’t keep away from Twitter over the weekend after some comments from Berkshire Hathaway’s investing legend Warren Buffett.
On Saturday, Berkshire held its annual shareholder meeting, and Buffett took a shot at Musk, saying, “There are some pretty good moats around,” and “Elon may turn things upside down in some areas. I don’t think he’d want to take us on in candy.”
Buffett, whose company owns candy retailer See’s Candies, made his “moat” comment after Musk said on Tesla’s conference call that, “If your only defense against invading armies is a moat, you will not last long.” Buffett, and his Berkshire partner Charlie Munger, have often used the term “moat” to describe businesses that their company owns and which remain relatively stable, such as See’s.
And, as this is Musk we are talking about, he used Twitter to tell Buffett what he really thought about the Berkshire Hathaway chief’s investment strategy.
Following Buffett’s comment, Musk tweeted, “Then I’m going to build a moat & fill it w/candy. Warren B will not be able to resist investing! Berkshire Hathaway kryptonite …” Musk went on to tweet later that, “Warren Buffett is huge in candy, it’s actually true,” and “Saying you like moats is like saying you like oligopolies.”
With an exchange like that, Musk probably shouldn’t expect Buffett to send him a box of See’s for Christmas this year.