Testy Musk not a fan of ‘boring questions’
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sounded particularly charged up for the electriccar maker’s first-quarter earnings call. And that didn’t do Tesla’s shareholders much good.
After Musk said it looked like Tesla would turn a profit later this year, he got testy with analysts as they brought up questions about a possible cash crunch.
“Boring questions are not cool. Next,” Musk said when asked by Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi about capital requirement.
The Tesla CEO did it again when RBC Capital Markets’ Joseph Spak sought comment on reservations for Tesla’s Model 3.
“We’re going to go to YouTube, sorry,” Musk said. “These questions are so dry. They’re killing me.”
The brush-off sent shares skidding. They had risen after the company reported a loss of $567.9 million, in line with analyst forecasts though still higher than the previous quarter and more than the same time last year.
But worries about Tesla running out of cash had dogged the company heading into results. Shares closed down more than 5% Thursday at $284.45.
Another exchange between Musk and HyperChange analyst Galileo Russell dismissed comments from Daimler questioning whether Tesla could deliver on specs for its Semi electric truck. “It seems that a lot of people are speculating that the specs for the Semi truck, even, I believe, the CEO of Daimler said it breaks the laws of physics,” Russell said.
“He doesn’t know much about physics,” Musk quipped. “I know him. I’m pretty happy you’re engaged in a physics discussion with him. I actually studied physics in college.” Musk then added Tesla will keep going “until you ask questions that are not boring.”
On Twitter, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said if Tesla wants to seek capital as a public company, it owes investors the courtesy to answer their questions. “If Mr. Musk wanted to run a private company, he should have done so,” Pachter said.