The desire to own aTesla Cybertruckis on the rise, with more celebrities joining the trend and adding the luxury vehicle to their car collections.
Owning a Cybertruck has become a new symbol of status, as celebrities frequently share photos of their latest acquisition or arrive at events in style with their futuristic ride.
Ghanaian business mogul Dr. Osei Kwame Despite was among the first to proudly showcase his Cybertruck on social media and at public gatherings.
He was soon followed by Dubai-based Ghanaian socialite Kojo Forex, and recently, Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido also purchased his own Cybertruck.
On Saturday, November 9, 2024, he took to Instagram to share the news, “I was bored and added another Cyber!” after transporting his brand-new Rolls Royce Spectre.
Shortly after Davido’s announcement, Nigerian singer Omah Lay reportedly acquired not one but two Tesla Cybertrucks.
Reports indicate that his models are the dual-motor All-Wheel Drive versions, with a starting price of $79,990.
This model delivers 600 horsepower, a range of approximately 340 miles, and a top speed of 112 mph.
The 2024 Tesla Cybertruck’s price can reach up to $101,985, depending on the chosen trim and features.
Currently, the lineup offers only the Dual Motor and Beast models, with the rear-wheel-drive version expected next year at a starting price of $62,985.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company will begin producing and utilizing humanoid robots starting next year.
In a social media post, Musk stated that these robots, known as Optimus, will initially be used by Tesla, with plans to start selling them in 2026.
Musk had previously mentioned that Optimus would be operational in Tesla factories by the end of this year. Other companies, such as Honda and Boston Dynamics, are also developing their own humanoid robots.
“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026,” Mr Musk said on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
It came just a day before Tesla was due to release its latest financial results. The company’s shares ended Monday’s trading session in New York up by more than 5%.
The company has said it aims to build an “autonomous humanoid robot” to perform “unsafe, repetitive or boring tasks.”
Mr Musk has previously said Tesla aimed for the robots to be mass produced and cost less than $20,000 (£17,900) each. He is known for setting ambitious timelines for his companies, which he has not always met.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j4dDsslYmoU
In 2019, he said he felt “very confident” Tesla would have self-driving taxis on the road by the following year.
Earlier this year, Mr Musk said the long-awaited robotaxi would be unveiled on 8 August. Last week, he appeared to confirm a report that the event would be delayed.
Mr Musk did not give a new date but said he had requested a change to the front of the vehicle.
“The extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” he wrote. This announcement followed a Bloomberg News report indicating that the event had been postponed to October.
Musk’s companies have increasingly turned their attention to technologies like artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and robotics amidst a period of slowing demandfor electric vehicles.
Ghanaian media personality, journalist, and advocate known for her outspokenness on social and political issues, Bridget Otoo, has labelled the owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, as “disingenuous.”
This comes after the Tesla boss tweeted on Sunday, July 14, following an attempted assassination of former USA president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Before it was confirmed that, the noise that caused the whisking away of Trump during the campaign rally, many media outlets such as BBC, abc news reported that the former president had to be taken away following loud noises that scared him and the crowd.
With an image of various media outlets’ headlines, Trump’s supporter, Elon Musk dragged traditional media as a “propaganda machine,” taunting X as the seemingly right platform to get authentic news reports.
“The legacy media is a pure propaganda machine. 𝕏 is the voice of the people” the tweet read.
Bridget in reaction slammed the X owner for his insincerity and pretense schooling him over how news is reported that is citing how headlines are changed as more updates evolve with time.
“You are disingenuous. These were the headlines when the initial report came and no one knew it was gunshot. They changed the headlines as more updates came in but you conveniently promoted the first reports.
That’s how media works: headlines change as story develop and more update come in. “Loud noise progressed to gunshots and to assassination attempts” she tweeted.
You are disingenuous. These were the headlines when the initial report came and no one knew it was gunshot. They changed the headlines as more updates came in but you conveniently promoted the first reports. That's how media works, headlines change as story develops and more… https://t.co/U0QB0rHIcE
She went on to urge Elon to ” Do better with your own platform, other than “promoting” the wrong narratives about media. “It won’t serve your base” she added.
Tesla shareholdershave approved a record-breaking pay package for CEO Elon Musk and the relocation of the company’s legal headquarters to Texas.
Earlier this year, a judge in Delaware had blocked the deal due to concerns about its fairness to shareholders.
The vote marks a significant win for the billionaire, who had vigorously advocated for the compensation package, potentially valued at up to $56 billion (£43.9 billion), contingent on Tesla’s share price.
“Hot damn, I love you guys,” he told a crowd of enthusiastic shareholders who had gathered in Texas for the firm’s annual meeting.
The deal exceeds 300 times what the highest-paid CEO in the US earned last year and is over 3,000 times the average CEO’s compensation.
However, the vote is non-binding, and legal experts have noted that it remains uncertain whether the court that initially blocked the deal will accept the re-vote and permit the company to reinstate the pay package.
“The vote changes nothing,” said Mathieu Shapiro, a managing partner at law firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel.
“It only offers Tesla opportunities to try to use the vote to obtain a better decision going forward.
“It will be interesting to see if another court is willing to credit a vote taken after the trial court’s decision.”
The eye-popping sum had sparked criticism and raised concerns that the board of Tesla was too submissive and close to Mr Musk.
In the January court ruling, Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled the sum was “unfair” and the process for determining the package by a board dominated by Mr. Musk was “deeply flawed.”
Chancellor McCormick had pointed out that Antonio Gracias, who had been a board director at Tesla, had “the sort of personal relationship that had him vacationing with Musk’s family on a regular basis.”
She also highlighted Todd Maron, Tesla’s former general counsel, “who was Musk’s former divorce attorney and whose admiration for Musk moved him to tears during his deposition.”.
Elon Musk announced plans to move Tesla’s legal headquarters to Texas after a Delaware court, where Tesla is currently incorporated, voided his pay package following a lawsuit from a small investor. This conflict has raised concerns about Musk’s leadership, especially as Tesla’s share price has declined from its peak and its dominance in the electric vehicle market faces challenges.
Despite these issues, Musk rallied his fan base, particularly appealing to individual investors who represent a significant portion of Tesla’s shareholders.
The pay proposal received 72% of the votes cast, closely mirroring the 73% approval it initially received in 2018.
“It’s a pretty ringing endorsement,” said car industry analyst Karl Brauer.
Mr. Musk got more than enough shareholder support “to justify the package,” he added.
Mr. Musk had previewed the results in a post on his social media company, X, formerly known as Twitter.
Following Mr. Musk’s announcement, shares in the company saw a nearly 3% increase in closing.
The compensation plan grants Mr. Musk approximately 300 million shares, which equates to a 10% ownership stake in Tesla. This reward is contingent upon Tesla achieving specific objectives outlined in 2018, which are tied to sales, profitability, and the company’s stock price.
Tesla had acknowledged that Mr. Musk’s targets were ambitious. However, the lawsuit that led to the Delaware court’s decision to block the pay package alleged that these targets mirrored internal growth forecasts shared with banks.
“My understanding is that there’s been about 1,100% appreciation in Tesla stock. And that’s pretty, pretty impressive. Most chief executives have never done anything like that,” said Mr Brauer.
On whether Mr Musk deserved such a large pay, Georg Ell, former director of Western Europe at Tesla, told the BBC’s Today programme: “If I were an investor who put a substantial amount of money into this in 2018 and had held it throughout the period, I’d be very happy because I would have seen anywhere between… 13 and 16 times my money back.
“That’s a very, very good return,” he said.
Mr Ell disclosed that he has a small shareholding in Tesla, worth around £6,000.
Tesla’s board said Mr Musk deserved the package because the carmaker had achieved its targets under his leadership and that it was necessary to ensure he remains dedicated to the company.
Mr Ell said that the result of the vote gives Mr Musk “very strong validation.”
“At Tesla, of course, he doesn’t do it all alone but he definitely sets the agenda, he sets the pace and he is a relentless person to work for; there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
Tesla executives took to social media to voice their endorsement of the package, emphasising Mr. Musk’s pivotal role in the company’s achievements.
Simultaneously, Mr. Musk pledged to provide apersonal tour of Tesla’s Texas factory to certain shareholders who participated in the voting process.
During Thursday’s meeting, shareholders also sanctioned the re-election of two board members: James Murdoch, the son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and Kimbal Musk, Mr. Musk’s own brother.
A person who owns part of the company said they paid too much and is taking it to court.
Judge Kathaleen McCormick said the payment was a very large amount that was not fair to the owners of the company. She also said the way the payment was approved had many problems.
She decided that the contract must be cancelled.
The agreement on how much money to pay was made in 2018 and was the largest ever in US corporate history. This helped Mr. Musk become the richest person in the world. In November 2023, Bloomberg and Forbes said his money is between $198 billion and $220 billion.
Tesla’s deal connected Mr. Musk’s pay to how well Tesla’s stock does and how much money the company makes. He doesn’t get paid.
But the owner of some of the Tesla company, Richard Tornetta, sued to take back the award because he thinks the boss got too much money.
After many years of fighting in court, a trial started in November 2022. Tesla directors were trying to explain that the big payment to Mr. Musk was meant to make sure he keeps focusing on the company. Musk is known as one of the most active and successful entrepreneurs in the world.
Furthermore, Musk had a close connection with the Tesla officials who were responsible for discussing the pay award. She mentioned his long relationship with the person in charge of deciding how much people get paid.
Mr Musk has been doing business with Antonio Gracia for over 20 years, said the judge.
After the decision was made, Greg Varallo, a lawyer for the Tesla shareholder Mr. Tornetta, said it was a “good day for the good guys,” in an email reported by Reuters.
Mr Musk posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) saying “Don’t register your company in Delaware”.
The judge’s decision can be challenged in the Delaware Supreme Court.
Tesla’s stock went down by about 2. 5% in after-hours trading in New York. They are worth 20% less this year than they were before.
Mr Musk is the boss and a big owner of Tesla. He also has other companies like X, SpaceX, and Neuralink.
Mr Musk sold a lot of his Tesla shares to buy X. Now he owns about 13% of the company. He wants to own even more.
When Tesla offered Mr. Musk a pay package in 2018, a lot of people noticed and talked about it. Many shareholders’ advisors suggested not to vote for the plan because they believe it is too generous.
The package was much larger than the salaries of the top 200 CEOs in America combined in 2021, according to research firm Equilar.
Brian Quinn, a teacher at Boston College Law School, told the BBC that it was difficult to say that a deal like this is right, because Mr. Musk has a lot of power over the board.
“He takes care of Tesla as if it’s his own, but he’s not the main owner even though he calls himself the ‘Techno-king of Tesla’,” Professor Quinn explained.
Mr Musk is worried about Tesla’s investments in artificial intelligence technology.
“I don’t feel good about making Tesla a leader in AI and robotics unless I have 25% of the voting power,” he said on social media.
He said the way Tesla’s shareholders are now can make it easy for someone not trustworthy to take over the company, and he wants more say in where it’s heading.
Mr Musk said he would rather make products somewhere else if that’s not true.
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has announced that it achieved a new milestone by delivering a record number of vehicles in the second quarter, which ended in June.
This surge in deliveries can be attributed to the company’s decision to lower prices in key markets such as the US, UK, and China, in order to enhance its competitive position against rival manufacturers.
The strategy of reducing prices to boost sales seems to have paid off not only for Tesla but also for major Chinese car makers, who also reported a notable increase in sales during the month of June.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been vocal about prioritizing higher sales volumes even at the expense of lower profits, believing it to be the right choice for the company’s growth. This approach seems to be validated by the latest results.
On Sunday, Tesla revealed that it delivered an impressive total of 466,140 vehicles in the second quarter, marking a remarkable 80% increase compared to the same period last year.
Moreover, the company reported an uptick in vehicle production, reaching nearly 480,000 units in the same time frame.
“Tesla has made a strategic choice to be a volume manufacturer,” Bill Russo, the founder and chief executive of advisory firm Automobility, told the BBC.
“This was the main contributor to the sales increase, as its mainly higher-volume Model 3 and Model Y benefitted from the price war,” he added.
Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities told the BBC that “the price cuts in China have been a smart poker move that was massively successful for Tesla”.
China has become a significant market for Tesla, standing as the company’s second-largest market globally, trailing only North America. To maintain its competitive edge in the world’s second-largest economy, Tesla has resorted to cutting prices, as it faces competition from local electric car manufacturers.
Over the weekend, Beijing-based Li-Auto announced that its deliveries reached an all-time high of 32,575 vehicles in June, marking the third consecutive month of record-breaking sales. Additionally, Shanghai-based Nio and Guangzhou-based Xpeng reported significant increases in deliveries, with 10,707 and 8,620 vehicles respectively.
While Tesla has experienced robust growth in China, it has also encountered intensified competition both domestically and internationally, along with the impact of higher borrowing costs for customers. In response, the company has implemented price reductions throughout this year.
In April, Tesla explicitly stated that it had no plans to stabilize vehicle prices, despite the effect of repeated price cuts on its profitability. By adjusting prices to attract more customers, Tesla aims to maintain its market share and sustain its growth trajectory in the face of evolving market dynamics and rising competition.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has arrived in China for his first visit to the country in over three years.
He landed in Beijing on Tuesday and is expected to visit Tesla’s large manufacturing plant in Shanghai during his trip.
Upon his arrival, Musk met with China’s foreign minister Qin Gang, highlighting the significance of the visit. However, he has not yet publicly commented on the purpose of his trip, which takes place amidst tensions between the United States and China.
When asked by reporters about his plans for the visit, Musk declined to provide any details as he left a hotel in Beijing on Wednesday.
Later that day, Musk also had a meeting with China’s industry minister Jin Zhuanglong, focusing on discussions related to the development of electric vehicles.
In a statement on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said that Mr Musk was willing to expand the car maker’s business in the country, which is Tesla’s biggest market after the US.
The ministry added that during the meeting Mr Musk had described the economies of the US and China as “conjoined twins”.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.
Mr Musk has also been uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter, which he owns and where he has more than 141 million followers.
He is known for tweeting many times a day but as of midday on Wednesday had not posted anything since arriving in the country on Tuesday afternoon.
The social media platform is banned in China but it can be accessed through VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks.
Mr Musk is the latest high-profile US executive to make a trip to China. JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon is also in China this week, while Apple boss Tim Cook visited the country in March.
However, as tensions rise between Washington and Beijing Tesla finds itself in a difficult position, Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities said.
“Playing nice in the sandbox in Beijing is something Wall Street is laser focused on, to make sure there are no disruptions to Tesla’s expansion within China for the coming years,” Mr Ives added.
Image caption,Elon Musk’s private jet at an airport in Beijing on Tuesday
In January 2019, Tesla started building its so-called gigafactory in Shanghai, which was the firm’s first manufacturing plant outside the US.
Later that year, it delivered its first Chinese-made cars, marking a major milestone for the American company.
However, Covid lockdowns across the country, including in the financial, manufacturing and shipping hub of Shanghai, made it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to operate.
Last year, Mr Musk said the coronavirus lockdown of Shanghai was “very, very difficult” for Tesla, which reportedly halted most of its production at its gigafactory for several weeks.
Operations have since resumed at the plant, which produced its millionth car in August, according to Mr Musk. This accounted for a third of Tesla’s global production.
Last month, the company said it planned to build a new factory in China to make its large-scale “Megapack” batteries.
China has also become the largest market for Tesla’s Model Y mass-market electric vehicle, according to market research firm JATO.
More than 94,000 Model Y vehicles were sold in China in the first three months of this year, putting it ahead of the US and Europe, JATO data shows.
In recent years, Tesla’s lead in electric vehicle market has been challenged by increased competition from car making giants, including Ford and General Motors, as well as newer entrants into the market like China’s BYD and Nio.
Mr Musk – who bought Twitter last year for $44bn (£35.5bn) – has been under pressure to find someone else to lead the company and refocus his attention on his other businesses, including Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.
Earlier this month, he named Linda Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal as the platform’s new chief executive.
Ms Yaccarino will face the challenge of running a business that has struggled to be profitable, while facing intense scrutiny over how it handles misinformation and hate speech.
Twitter is now worth around a third of what Mr Musk paid for it, according to financial services firm Fidelity Investments, which helped to finance his takeover of the company.
For the second time in less than eight weeks, Tesla is lowering its prices.
According to Reuters, the automaker has once again reduced the cost of its more expensive, older Model S sedan and Model X SUV.
Although these vehicles were ground-breaking when they were introduced in 2012 and 2015, they now face fierce competition from far more recent models from manufacturers like Rivian, Lucid, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. As a result, only 5% of Tesla’s total global sales in 2022 came from the Model S and Model X combined.
A Tesla Model S with two motors and all-wheel drive cost $104,990 in 2022. Tesla reduced the cost of around 10% in January, bringing it down to $94,990. At $89,990 right now, it is $5,000 less expensive.
For those who want to go really fast, the Model S Plaid, which uses three motors for a sub-2-second 0–60 mph time and a 200 mph top speed, is now $109,990, $5,000 less than last week and $26,000 less than you’d have paid in 2022.
The Model X SUV sees even bigger discounts. After heavy price drops in January, Tesla has now cut an extra $10,000 from Model X prices. That means the all-wheel-drive dual-motor version now starts at $99,990, with the triple-motor Plaid Model X starting at $109,990.
How long those prices will stay is anyone’s guess. Within less than a month of enacting its January price cuts, Tesla had already increased the prices of the Model Y crossover again.
Tesla has issued a recall for over 362,000 cars due to a faulty Full Self-Driving driver-assistance system.
The New York Times reports that the cars will now have to be updated after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data showing the driving system has boosted the chance of accidents. Even though the system is called Full Self-Driving, the technology still requires the driver to be in control of the car in case of traffic, an accident, or a system glitch.
The driving system allows the car to steer, accelerate, brake, and change lanes by itself, ultimately permitting the car to operate in an “unlawful” manner, according to the safety agency, particularly because the vehicle can accelerate above legal speed limits and through intersections.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shared data last summer, which revealed that around 400 vehicles with advanced driver-assistance technology were involved in accidents between July 1, 2021 and May 15, 2022. Those accidents ended in six deaths and five severe injuries.
Of those 400 cars, 273 of them were Teslas and five accidents led to fatalities. The agency is also investigating 41 cars with the Full Self-Driving technology that were involved in accidents from 2016 and onwards.
Tesla will use an over-the-air update to repair the vehicles and will let drivers know about the recall via mail until April 15.
Tesla, a manufacturer of electric vehicles founded by Elon Musk, has refuted reports that it has fired staff members after they attempted to organize a union in the state of New York.
Workers in Buffalo, New York, allegedly lost their jobs a day after the union made its plans known to the public, according to organizers there.
To try to stifle the campaign, they claimed Tesla fired more than 30 employees.
The workers, who were a part of a 675-person team responsible for labeling the Autopilot system, were laid go, according to a blog post by Tesla.
The company said it had laid off 27 staff for “poor performance” and that they “were identified… well before the union campaign was announced.”
The firm said it only learned in hindsight that one of the 27 impacted employees “officially identified as part of the union campaign.”
“The employees let go as part of this process received prior feedback on their poor performance from their managers over the course of the review period. Despite feedback, they did not demonstrate sufficient improvement,” it added.
Mr Musk has been outspoken about his opposition to unions in the past.
“I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement and it’s shameful,” said Arian Berek, a fired member of the union’s organising committee.
In the complaint filed with government labour officials, the union cited 18 people it said the company had fired “in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity”.
Organisers said, based on a company chat, they believed more people had been fired and expected to add names to the complaint. They said they were still confirming how many of those fired had been directly involved in the campaign or had just indicated their support.
The Buffalo facility employs about 2,000 people, according to organisers from Tesla Workers United, which is backed by the same union that launched organising efforts at Starbucks.
The group is now seeking support from Tesla workers in Buffalo to hold a vote about joining a union. It sent a letter to the company on Tuesday outlining its plans and asking leaders to agree to ground rules for a “fair” election.
A day later, campaigners said, Tesla fired more than 30 workers and sent an email informing staff of a policy that bars recording of workplace conversations without the consent of all parties.
Organisers said the rule violated their rights under federal and state laws.
The National Labor Relations Board has previously found that Tesla violated labour rules during an organising effort at its car manufacturing plant in California.
“We’re angry. This won’t slow us down. This won’t stop us. They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede,” said Sara Costantino, current Tesla employee and organising committee member.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, claims to have donated approximately $1.95 billion (£1.6 billion) worth of company shares to charity last year.
In a filing with US regulators, the donation of 11.6 million shares was referred to as “a bona fide gift.”
The donation’s recipient or recipients were not identified in the filing.
Also on Wednesday, Mr. Musk stated that it would be “good time” to find a replacement for him as Twitter’s CEO towards the end of the year.
The document submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission states that the donation was made between August and December of last year.
A BBC request for comment has received no immediate response from Tesla.
It is not the first time Mr. Musk has given Tesla stock to charity. He donated around $5.74 billion worth of shares in 2021, according to a regulatory filing.
He also said on Twitter that year, that he planned to donate $20m to schools in Cameron County and $10m to the Brownsville city in Texas, US for “downtown revitalization”.
Mr Musk has also hinted that he plans to find his successor as chief executive of Twitter by the end of 2023.
“I’m guessing probably towards the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company, because I think it should be in a stable position around, you know, at the end of this year,” he said.
“I think I need to stabilise the organisation and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place and that the product roadmap is clearly laid out,” he said on a video link at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
The multibillionaire businessman bought the social media platform last year for $44 billion. He has since said the company was close to bankruptcy.
However, he has been criticised by some Tesla investors for spending too much of his time focussing on trying to turn around Twitter.
In November, addressing the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, Mr Musk said he is working too much as he juggles his responsibilities as Twitter, Tesla, and his rocket company SpaceX.
“My workload has recently increased quite a lot,” Mr Musk said. “I have too much work on my plate, that is for sure,” he added.
Elon Musk testified in court that, at the time he sent out the contentious tweet, he thought he had the support necessary to take Tesla private.
After investors claimed the 2018 tweet cost them millions of dollars when a deal fell through, the CEO of the electric car company is currently on trial.
According to Mr. Musk, a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund told him they would support a deal during their meeting.
He added that if he needed money, he would have sold his shares in the rocket company SpaceX.
Mr Musk is accused of defrauding investors after he tweeted on 7 August 2018 that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that “investor support is confirmed”.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
The tweet sent shares in Tesla soaring, but weeks later they fell back when Mr Musk said the plan was no longer going ahead, causing a significant backlash for the billionaire.
He was forced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, to step down as Tesla’s chairman and had to have any tweets related to Tesla vetted by an independent committee.
He and Tesla were also fined $20m each to settle a claim by the SEC that he had committed securities fraud.
On Monday, Mr Musk told a court in San Francisco that he had met with people from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund on 31 July, 2018.
He said that while a price for taking Tesla private was not discussed, he claimed that the representatives from the fund made it clear they backed a deal.
Mr Musk claimed Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the fund’s governor, then appeared to backpedal on the pledge.
“I was very upset because he had been unequivocal in his support for taking Tesla private when we met and now he appeared to be backpedaling,” he said.
‘Not a joke’
Mr Musk was also questioned about how he decided on a price of $420 a share and whether it was a reference to marijuana.
But, according to the SEC’s legal documents: “He rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number’s significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend ‘would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price’.”
In American counterculture, 20 April is a day when thousands of people gather to celebrate marijuana. In the US, dates are written with number of the month first, then the day – in this case 4/20.
In court, Mr Musk said: “420 was not chosen because of a joke; it was chosen because there was a 20% premium over the stock price.
He added that there was “some karma around 420”, though “I should question whether that is good or bad karma at this point.”
His tweet has become legendary in Silicon Valley, as it showed the sheer power that 140 characters on Twitter can have.
Legal experts said they believe it will be a difficult case for Mr Musk to win, and that the fine he paid to the SEC will be used against him in the case. However jury trials in cases of fraud are notoriously difficult to predict.
Mr Musk had wanted the trial to be moved to Texas, arguing a fair jury would not be possible to find in San Francisco.
The move, which prompted a 4% fall in Tesla’s shares in pre-market trading, came after CEO Elon Musk warned that the prospect of recession and higher interest rates meant it could lower prices to sustain volume growth at the expense of profit. Shares are down 65% since the start of 2022.
The lower pricing across Tesla’s major markets marks a reversal from the strategy the automaker had pursued through much of 2021 and 2022 when orders for new vehicles exceeded supply. Musk acknowledged last year that prices had become “embarrassingly high” and could hurt demand.
The US price cuts, announced late Thursday on its global top-sellers the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover SUV, were between 6% and 20%, Reuters calculations showed.
The basic version of its Model Y now costs $52,990, down from $65,990 previously.
That is before an up to $7,500 federal tax credit that took effect for many electric vehicle models at the start of January.
Tesla also cut prices for its Model X luxury crossover SUV and Model S sedan in the United States.
In Germany, it cut prices on the Model 3 and the Model Y by between about 1% and almost 17% depending on the configuration. It also cut prices in Austria, Switzerland and France.
For a US buyer of the long-range Model Y, the new Tesla price combined with the US subsidy amounts to a discount of 31%. In addition, the Tesla move broadened the vehicles in its line-up eligible for the Biden administration tax credit.
Before the price cut, the five-seat version of the Model Y had been ineligible for that credit, a designation Musk called “messed up”. After the price cut, the long-range version of the Model Y will qualify.
The cuts may make EV cars affordable to people who may have been previously priced out of the market.
In France, customers buying the Model 3 for €44,990 ($48,773) will now get a further price reduction through a government subsidy of €5,000. The threshold for the EV subsidy is €47,000.
“This should really boost 2023 (Tesla) volumes,” Gary Black, a Tesla investor who has remained bullish on the company and its prospects through the recent, sharp share price decline, said in a tweet. “It’s the right move.”
Still shares in US pre-market trading were lower, as investors worried the move might erode margins, particularly as competition intensifies.
“Tesla is an outlier because it’s still got eye watering valuations when it comes to the number of cars that it actually sells. But ultimately there are all the other providers that sell a hell of a lot more cars overall,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Some users on Tesla fan forums online also complained the price cuts disadvantaged those who had recently bought their vehicle, leaving them with a lower second-hand value.
“Just reducing 10,000 euros like that – definitely makes you feel that you just paid far too much,” one user wrote on a ‘Tesla Drivers and Friends’ forum.
In China, where Tesla cut prices last week by 6% to 13.5%, owners protested at delivery centres, calling for compensation.
Before the cuts, Tesla inventory in the United States, as tracked by models its website shows as immediately available, had been trending higher. Prices on used Tesla models had also been dropping, increasing pressure to adjust new-car prices.
For 2021, the United States and China combined had accounted for about 75% of Tesla sales, although it has been growing sales in Europe, where its Berlin plant has been ramping up output.
Tesla cut prices in China and other Asian markets last week in its first major move since appointing its lead executive for China and Asia, Tom Zhu, to oversee U.S. output and sales.
Analysts had said the Chinese price cuts would boost demand and increase pressure on its rivals there, including BYD (BYDDF), to follow suit in what could become a price war in the largest single market for electric vehicles.
Tesla’s Model 3 was the best-selling electric vehicle in Germany last month, followed by the Model Y, beating Volkswagen’s all-electric ID.4. Volkswagen recently raised the price of its entry-level ID.3, putting it at parity with the now-discounted Model 3.
Tesla missed Wall Street estimates for fourth quarter deliveries. Full year growth in deliveries was 40% – also short of Musk’s own forecast of 50%.
Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, claims it delivered a record 1.3 million vehicles in 2018, a 40% increase from 2021.
It follows the company’s more than 405,000 vehicle deliveries in the final three months of 2022.
That number, however, fell short of Wall Street predictions of 430,000 deliveries for the time period.
The demand for automobiles is anticipated to slow this year as potential customers fret over the recession and rising interest rates.
In a statement to investors, Tesla said it had to deal with “significant COVID and supply chain related challenges throughout the year”.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, authorities in South Korea said they would fine Tesla $2.2 million (£1.8 million) for failing to tell its customers about the shorter driving range of its electric vehicles in low temperatures.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission said the company had exaggerated the “driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles, as well as the performance of its superchargers.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Highlighting the logistics issues faced by the world’s most valuable car maker, deliveries in the fourth quarter of the year were about 34,000 fewer than what Tesla produced.
The shortfall is unusual for Tesla, as it had previously managed to deliver about as many vehicles as it produced.
In October, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said he was working to resolve the issue.
Like other car makers, Tesla faces the potential challenge of slowing demand for vehicles as customers deal with rising borrowing costs and concerns about an economic slowdown.
Tesla also faces competition from traditional motor manufacturing giants such as Ford and General Motors, as well as newer entrants to the market like Rivian and Lucid in the US and China’s BYD and Nio.
The company is scheduled to announce financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022 and the year as a whole on 25 January.
Tesla said in a separate statement that it plans to host its Investor Day on 1 March and livestream the event from its Gigafactory in Texas.
“Our investors will be able to see our most advanced production line as well as discuss long-term expansion plans, the Generation 3 platform, capital allocation, and other subjects with our leadership team,” the company said.
Tesla’s shares fell by 65% in 2022 – its worst year since going public in 2010 – as investors worried about disruptions to production, concerns over a slowdown in demand and Mr Musk’s focus on Twitter.
The multi-billionaire bought thesocial media platform at the end of October for $44 billion (£36.4 billion) and has spent much of his time since then trying to turn the business around.
Elon Musk has stated that he will step down as Twitter’s CEO once he finds someone “foolish enough to take the job.”
Prior to this, the billionaire made a commitment to follow the outcome of a Twitter poll in which 57.5% of respondents favoured his leaving the position.
He claims that even after a replacement is found, he will continue to lead the software and servers teams.
The platform’s modifications since his takeover have drawn a lot of flak.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
Since Mr Musk bought the social media site in October, he has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter’s paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.
Civil liberties groups have also criticised his approach to content moderation, accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.
On Friday, Mr Musk was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter’s decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.
The UN tweeted that media freedom was “not a toy”, while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.
This is the first time the multibillionaire has responded to the poll launched on Sunday asking if he should resign. Finding someone to take over the social media platform may be a challenge, according to Mr Musk. Some people speculate Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey could also come back to run the company. He resigned as chief executive in November 2021.
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive,” he tweeted following the poll.
No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.
Other names mentioned as possible replacements include Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s former chief operating office, Sriram Krishnan, engineer and close confidante to Mr Musk, and Jared Kushner, US former presidential adviser and son-in-law of Donald Trump.
In the past Mr Musk has obeyed Twitter polls. He is fond of quoting the Latin phrase vox populi, vox dei which roughly means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
In response to a tweet saying Twitter Blue subscribers “should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls. We actually have skin in the game”, Mr Musk said: “Good point, Twitter will make that change.”
Twitter’s paid-for verification feature was rolled out for a second time last week after its launch was paused. The service costs $8 per month, or $11 for people using the Twitter app on Apple devices, and gives subscribers a “blue tick”.
Previously a blue tick was used as a badge of authenticity and was free.
For weeks, investors have called on Mr Musk to step down from running the social media platform, saying he has been distracted from properly running Tesla.
Shares in the the electric car company have plummeted more than 65% over the past year.
Mr Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.
After a majority of users voted for him to resign, Elon Muskdeclared that Twitter will only permit accounts with a blue tick to vote on changes to policy.
In a poll that Mr. Musk posted on Twitter, asking if he should step down as CEO, 57.5% of respondents said “yes.”
He hasn’t addressed the poll’s outcome directly since that time.
But he has stated that Twitter will change its rules so that only subscribers will be able to vote on corporate policy.
One user claimed that so-called bots appeared to have voted heavily in the poll about Mr Musk’s role at the firm. Mr Musk said he found the claim “interesting”.
The billionaire had said when he ran the poll that he would abide by the result. If he does quit as chief executive, he will remain as Twitter’s owner.
Bruce Daisley, former vice president of Twitter, compared any potential change to that of a football manager. “The chairman still remains and Elon Musk is going to be that ever-present voice in the back of the room,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
In response to a tweet saying Twitter Blue subscribers “should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls. We actually have skin in the game”, Mr Musk said: “Good point, Twitter will make that change”.
Twitter’s paid-for verification feature was rolled out for a second time last week after its launch was paused. The service costs $8 per month, or $11 for people using the Twitter app on Apple devices, and gives subscribers a “blue tick”.
Previously a blue tick was used as verification tool for high-profile accounts as a badge of authenticity and was free.
On Monday, Mr Musk held a poll on his future as chief executive. More than 17.5 million users voted and the majority backed him stepping down.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
While the poll was running he replied to one user suggesting there was no replacement chief executive lined up, saying: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”
The technology tycoon, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and space rocket firm Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site.
He has obeyed the results of his Twitter polls in the past and quoted the phrase “vox populi, vox dei”, a Latin phrase which roughly means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Mr Musk bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) in October after attempting to back out of the deal.
Since taking control, he has been criticised for his approach to content moderation, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.
On Friday, he was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter’s decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm. He has also fired about half of Twitter’s staff.
Mr Daisley said through Mr Musk’s activity, you could “get a hint” over what he was thinking through his replies to users.
“He does seem to be quibbling with the vote,” he added.
Mr Musk has also been accused of neglecting his electric car company Tesla, which is where most of his wealth is. Tesla shares have lost more than 60% in value this year, with some saying his obsession with Twitter is destroying the brand.
Last week, Leo KoGuan, the third largest individual shareholder in Tesla, called for Mr Musk to step down as the boss of the electric car maker.
“Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves to have [a] working full time CEO,” he tweeted.
The poll comes as Twitter says it will shut down accounts solely designed to promote other social media platforms.
The measure would also affect accounts that linkoff to or contain usernames from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post, the company said in a tweet.
But cross-content posting from other sites will still be allowed.
Former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, who recently invested in Nostr, replied to the Twitter post with one word: “Why?”.
In a reply to another user posting about the Nostr promotion ban, Dorsey said, “doesn’t make sense”.
On Saturday, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz was suspended for breaking the new rule before it had been formally announced.
After being reinstated on Sunday she posted a link to the tweet she claimed got her barred.
Twitter had already blocked users from sharing some links to Mastodon, the platform many Twitter users moved to after Mr Musk’s takeover.
But in a series of tweets on Sunday Twitter said: “We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.
“Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”
Examples of possible violations could include tweets such as “follow me @username on Instagram” or “check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username”, it said in a blog setting out the details.
Any attempts to bypass the restrictions would also be a breach, it added.
Those who break the rules for the first time or as in an “isolated incident” could be asked to delete the offending tweets or be temporarily locked out of their accounts.
But any subsequent offenses “will result in permanent suspension”, it said.
Users can continue to post content to Twitter from prohibited platforms, however, and paid adverts from those sites will still be allowed.
Casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd in the extreme
A few hours after the announcement, Mr Musk appeared to contradict it by tweeting that “casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd in the extreme”.
Meanwhile, the boss of Post, one of the prohibited platforms, promoted his site in a tweet following the announcement.
“We make it easy to add all your social media links to your profile since none of us only use one platform,” Noam Bardin tweeted, adding “Freedom = Choice.”
There has been flurry of controversial changes at Twitter since Mr Musk bought the social media site for $44bn (£36bn) in October.
He has fired around half of its staff and attempted a chaotic rollout of Twitter’s paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.
The billionaire’s approach to content moderation has also been criticised, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.
On Friday,he reinstated a number of journalists he had suspended for allegedly sharing location data about him after the EU and UN called it an attack on press freedom.
It appears that Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk made a significant effort to exert one-sided authority over the platform on Thursday evening when he abruptly banned the accounts of several prominent journalists from leading news organisations.
The accounts of Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, and other journalists who have aggressively covered Musk in recent weeks have all been abruptly and permanently suspended. Additionally blocked was the account of progressive, independent journalist Aaron Rupar.
Musk falsely claimed that the journalists had violated his new “doxxing” policy by sharing his live location, amounting to what he described as “assassination coordinates.” CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan did not share the billionaire’s live location.
A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the Twitter alternative that’s on 🔥
Shortly before his suspension, O’Sullivan reported on Twitter that the social media company had suspended the account of an emerging competitive social media service, Mastodon, which has allowed the continued posting of @ElonJet, an account that posts the updated location of Musk’s private jet.
Other reporters suspended Thursday had recently written about the account.
Doxxing refers to the practice of sharing someone’s home address or other personal information online. The banned account had instead used publicly available flight data, which remain online and accessible, to track Musk’s jet.
The bans raise a number of questions about the future of the platform, which has been referred to as a digital town square. It also called into serious question Musk’s supposed commitment to free speech.
Musk has repeatedly said he would like to permit all legal speech on the platform. In April, on the same day he announced he would purchase Twitter, he had tweeted: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”
A CNN spokesperson said the company has asked Twitter for an explanation, and it would “reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”
“The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising. Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” the spokesperson said.
A New York Times spokesperson called the mass bans “questionable and unfortunate,” adding: “Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”
“Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech,” Harwell told CNN on Thursday. “I think that calls into question his commitment.”
Rupar, too, said he had heard “nothing” from Twitter about the suspension.
Several organizations condemned Twitter’s decision, with the head of the American Civil Liberties Union saying: “It’s impossible to square Twitter’s free speech aspirations with the purging of critical journalists’ accounts.”
The president of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) said in a statement it was “concerned” about the suspensions, and that the move “affects all journalists.”
Flight tracking controversy
The @ElonJet account, which had amassed more than 500,000 followers, was permanently suspended Wednesday after Twitter introduced a set of new policies banning accounts that track people’s live locations. Musk also blocked any account linking tosuch information. Previously, there were no location sharing-related restrictions on Twitter.
The changes came after Musk reinstated previous Twitter rule-breakers and stopped enforcing the platform’s policies prohibiting Covid-19 misinformation.
“I do think this is very important for the potential chilling impact this can have for freelance journalists, independent journalists around the world, particularly those who cover Elon Musk’s other companies, like Tesla and SpaceX,” O’Sullivan told CNN Thursday after his account was suspended.
As the furor over the account suspensions unfolded, some Twitter users reported the platform had begun intervening when they attempted to post links to their own profiles on alternative social networks, including Mastodon.
Those reports were confirmed Thursday evening by a CNN reporter who was blocked from sharing a Mastodon profile URL and was given an automated error message that said Twitter or its partners had identified the site as “potentially harmful.”
After a significant decline in the value of his shares in the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla this year, Elon Musk is no longer the richest man in the world.
According to Forbes and Bloomberg, Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury goods company LVMH, has surpassed Elon Musk for the top spot. Mr. Musk previously held that position.
Mr. Musk is Tesla’s CEO and the company’s largest shareholder, with a reported 14% stake.
In October, he finished a $44 billion takeover of the social media site Twitter.
Forbes estimates that Mr. Musk is now worth about $178 billion (£152 billion).
In contrast, Bernard Arnault is worth $188 billion.
Mr Musk’s Twitter deal was only completed after months of legal wrangling, and some have cited the distraction of the takeover as one of the factors behind Tesla’s share price fall.
After building a stake in Twitter at the start of the year, Mr Musk made his $44bn offer in April, although many considered this offer to be too high.
In July, he pulled out of the deal, citing concerns over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Eventually Twitter executives took legal action to hold Mr Musk to his offer.
Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities said the “circus” surrounding the Twitter deal has weighed on Tesla’s share price.
“Musk has gone from a superhero to Tesla’s stock, to a villain in the eyes of the Street, as the overhang grows with each tweet,” he told the BBC.
“The Twitter circus show has hurt the Musk brand andit’s a major overhang on Tesla’s stock. Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk.”
Mr Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.
Investors have also been concerned that demand for the company’s electric cars may slow, as the economy weakens, higher borrowing costs discourage buyers and other companies boost their electric vehicle offerings.
Tesla has also been hit by recalls, as well as government probes of crashes and its autopilot feature.
The BBC has obtained photos of Twitter office spacethat has been converted into bedrooms, which San Francisco authorities are investigating as a possible violation of building codes.
One image shows a room with a double bed, a wardrobe, and slippers.
According to an ex-employee, new Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been staying at the company’s headquarters since he purchased it.
He emailed all Twitter employees last month, saying they “will need to be extremely hardcore” to succeed.
San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection has confirmed it is investigating potential violations following a complaint.
Mr Musk said the city was attacking companies for providing beds to “tired employees”.
In a now-deleted tweet, Mr Musk posted that he would work and sleep in the office “until the org is fixed”.
The BBC has also been given pictures of sofas at Twitter being used as beds.
Image caption, Former staff say wardrobes have been moved into Twitter’s HQ
“It looks like a hotel room,” said one former worker. They went on to say that Mr Musk regularly sleeps at the Twitter HQ in San Francisco.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.
Last month Mr Musk – who completed his Twitter takeover in October – emailed all staff at the company saying they would need to work “long hours at high intensity”.
California state senator Scott Wiener told the BBC on Wednesday: “He’s now making them [workers] sleep at Twitter.
“It’s clear that he doesn’t really care about people. He doesn’t care about the people who work for him.”
A Department of Building Inspection official told the BBC’s US partner CBS News: ‘We need to make sure the building is being used as intended.”
Image caption, Two sofas with bedding on them
In a reply to a journalist on Twitter, Mr Musk posted that the city should prioritise protecting children from the consequences of opioid drug misuse.
‘Office armchairs’
Forbes broke the story of “sad little conference-room sleeping quarters at the company’s recently depopulated headquarters”, noting it was an apparent improvement on the improvised sleeping-bag-on-the-floor arrangement posted on Twitter by one employee.
The bedrooms, Bloomberg reported, are also said to accommodate staff from Tesla and other Musk-owned businesses brought in to work at Twitter, “some of whom travel to Twitter for work meetings”, sources told the publication.
Department of Building Inspection official Patrick Hannan told the San Francisco Chronicle it investigated all complaints and there were different rules for residential buildings, even those used for short-term stays.
In May 2020, before Mr Musk’s takeover, Twitter told employees they could work from home “forever” if they so wished because its remote-working measures during Covid lockdowns had been a success.
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk will spend this week in court to defend the massive compensation package that helped make him the world’s richest man.
The week-long trial in Delaware Court of Chancery will examine the 2018 compensation plan that the automaker’s board of directors created for Musk.
The automaker said at the time it could be worth nearly $56 billion, making it the largest compensation package for anyone on earth from a publicly traded company, and the net value today is $50.9 billion.
Even in the rarified air of CEO pay, Musk’s compensation plan stood apart. Millions upon millions of dollars are often lavished on corporate executives of the biggest companies, but the plan to pay Musk initially totaled in the tens of billions, as long as he met performance goals.
It wasn’t in cash – top executive pay rarely is – but in shares of the company. The higher Tesla went, the more those shares would be valued, the more Musk would be awarded and the more those shares would be worth.
And as Tesla’s stock shot ever upwards, it helped propel him to a net worth of over $300 billion at one point, all while shareholders reaped the potential gains.
But all the while, Musk was sharing his time between his many other endeavors. SpaceX began regularly sending astronauts to the International Space Station.
The Boring Company built a Loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center. And then, of course, he bought Twitter.
Huge CEO Pay
Musk isn’t the only one to benefit from the rise in value of Tesla shares and options,however. So have shareholders. The market value of Tesla has soared more 1,000% since they approved his pay package in March of 2018.
The case could be significant for Tesla, given the serious questions raised about its executive compensation, according to corporate governance experts. Tesla’s board of directors has defended the compensation package.
The trial may also invigorate debate over executive compensation, including large stock grants they receive. S&P 500 CEOs averaged $18.3 million in compensation in 2021, 324 times the median pay at the companies. That disparity has grown in recent years.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for example, received compensation valued at $212.7 million in 2021. Apple CEO Tim Cook received nearly $100 million last year. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was paid nearly $50 million in 2021.
The plaintiff, Richard J. Tornetta, claims on behalf of Tesla shareholders that Musk exploited his control over the company and its board of directors to secure the huge compensation package in order to “fund his personal ambition to colonize Mars.”
Musk entered March 2018, the month shareholders approved the compensation plan, at No. 41 on the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, due largely to his involvement in Tesla and SpaceX. At the time, Tesla was a promising but troubled automaker.
It had lost nearly $2 billion the year before and struggled to overcome production delays as it manufactured its mass-market Model 3 sedan.
Musk spoke of being in “production hell” as well as “delivery logistics hell” during the year, and joked about going bankrupt.
Many questioned if the company could survive as an independent automaker.
Tesla’s board of directors felt that with proper execution the automaker could become one of the world’s most valuable companies and wanted to encourage Musk to lead it for the long term.
The compensation plan included 12 batches of stock that Musk would receive if milestones were hit, including the market capitalization of Tesla as well as its revenue and adjusted earnings. (Each batch of stock would be earned if Tesla’s market capitalization increased an additional $50 billion above $100 billion. Other milestones included hitting $35 billion in annualized revenue and $3 billion in adjusted earnings.)
The plan, originally set to pay out over the course of a decade, turned out to be wildly lucrative for Musk and in astonishing time. Tesla was the best-performing US stock in 2020 and became America’s most valuable automaker ever. Its small SUV, the Model Y, became the best-selling car in Europe recently.
Musk has reached many of the milestones that trigger the payouts, and he is expected to earn the final batch early next year.
The payment plan helped lead to Musk becoming the world’s richest person, with an estimated net worth of $184 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
His true net worth can be challenging to estimate as a significant portion is invested in SpaceX, a private company that does not have to publicly reveal detailed financials that could show a decline or increase in value. Tech stocks and the entire stock market more broadly have fallen sharply this year.
A Duty to Shareholders
Richard Tornetta, who originally filed the lawsuit in June 2018, claims that the Tesla board of directors has breached its fiduciary duties for waste, and Musk has breached his own fiduciary duties for unjust enrichment.
Tornetta argued in his original 2018 complaint that the compensation plan was unnecessary to incentive Musk as he already had a large ownership stake in the automaker.
The lawsuit was certified as a class action case by the court in January 2021. The case has taken years to move through the system due to the drawn-out nature of litigation, including working through a motion from Tesla to dismiss the complaint.
The Tornetta complaint alleges that the board of directors that created Musk’s compensation plan lacked sufficient independence from him. The board included Musk’s brother Kimbal as well as friends Anthony Gracias and Steve Jurvetson. (Jurvetson and Gracias have since left Tesla’s board.)
Carla Hayn, a professor who teaches corporate governance at the UCLA business school, told CNN Business that the case is serious for Tesla as it will be a heavy burden for the automaker to prove the compensation and the process to create it was fair.
“This is a huge package,” Hayn said of the compensation plan. “Did they need to give away this much of the company to Musk to align his interests and keep him as CEO?”
She noted that Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, advisory firms, both recommended in 2018 that Tesla stockholders reject the compensation plan.
Institutional Shareholder Services cautioned that the plan “locks in unprecedented high pay opportunities for the next decade,” and noted that Musk already owned 22% of Tesla, aligning his interests with it. But shareholders did approve the plan, she noted.
Tesla’s Board
Hayn noted that Musk’s close relationships with the board members could be problematic for Tesla in the case.
“Given that entire board is very much under the influence of Musk it’s hard to know that anything that they did would be following proper process,” she said.
Tesla’s board of directors have claimed that it created the plan “after more than six months of careful analysis with a leading independent compensation consultant as well as discussions with Elon.”
“We gave Elon the ability to share in the upside in a way that is commensurate with the difficulty of achieving them,” they said at the time.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment and generally does not engage with the professional news media.
The trial is expected to last a week. Chancery court judges at times rule from the bench, but that’s uncommon. It may take weeks to months before a decision is issued.
Musk has become something of a regular at the Delaware Court of Chancery.Last month his acquisition of Twitter nearly went to trial at the court.
He testified before the court last year in a dispute over Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity. A judge ruled in Musk’s favor this April.
Musk’s unique management style will be a topic of discussion. He leads several ventures outside of Tesla: the aerospace company SpaceX; his tunneling venture The Boring Co.; a brain interface startup, Neuralink; and Twitter. It’s uncommon for executives to hold multiple CEO titles.
Separately, Mr Musk is said to have told Twitter employees that bankruptcy is not out of the question.
Since Mr Musk began firing thousands of employees last week, the company has been in disarray.
The ability for users to buy verified status as part of a new subscription has raised concerns that Twitter could be swamped with fake accounts.
On Thursday, Yoel Roth, who had been Twitter’s head of trust and safety, updated his profile on the social media platform to indicate that he was no longer in the role.
Chief privacy officer Damien Kieran and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty resigned, according to reports, and the company’s chief security officer Lea Kissner also quit.
The departures may increase the risk of Twitter violating regulatory orders. The firm was fined $150m (£119m) in May for selling users’ data, and had to agree to new privacy rules.
“We are tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” Douglas Farrar, the FTC’s director of public affairs, said.
“No chief executive or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees.”
Mr Farrer said the FTC had “new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them”.
Twitter paid the fine in May to settle allegations it had illegally used users’ data to help sell targeted ads.
In addition to the fine, it had to agree to new rules, and put in place a beefed-up privacy and security programme – overseen by the executives reported to have quit.
Since taking charge, Mr Musk has fired former chief executive Parag Agrawal and other top management, and the company’s advertising and marketing chiefs have also left, adding to concerns that Twitter does not have enough people in place to oversee that it remains compliant with regulations.
Money concerns
In a separate development, Mr Musk reportedly told employees in a meeting that he was not certain about the future financial performance of the company, and that bankruptcy was a possibility.
“We just definitely need to bring in more cash than we spend. If we don’t do that and there’s a massive negative cash flow, then bankruptcy is not out of the question,” Mr Musk is understood to have said.
He also urged employees to work with a “maniacal sense of urgency,” according to reports.
Twitter was approached for comment. Technology website The Verge, which published a full transcript of Mr Musk’s address to employees, reported that Twitter no longer had a communications department.
A number of big advertisers have been spooked by the direction Mr Musk is taking the social media firm.
Twitter makes most of its money through advertising, but some large advertisers have paused spending while they take stock of the changes that Mr Musk is bringing in.
On Thursday, Chipotle Mexican Grill said it had pulled back its paid and owned content on Twitter “while we gain a better understanding on the direction of the platform under its new leadership”.
It joined other brands, including car firms General Motors, Volkswagen and Audi, drugs giant Pfizer, and food manufacturer General Mills, which owns brands including Cheerios and Lucky Charms.
Some brands aresaid to be concerned that Mr Musk will relax content moderation rules and reverse permanent Twitter bans given to controversial figures, including former US President Donald Trump.
Foxconn, which manufactures iPhones for Apple, says it is increasing its investment in a US electric pick-up truck company that could compete with Tesla’s Cybertruck.
The technology behemoth is investing up to $170 million (£147.8 million) in the loss-making start-up Lordstown Motors.
The large cash infusion comes as the company plans to increase production of its first model, the Endurance.
Lordstown recently began production of the vehicle at a former GM plant in the US state of Ohio.
The world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics purchased a more than 18% stake in Lordstown, making it the company’s largest investor.
“Since announcing our first transaction with Foxconn more than a year ago, it has been our objective to develop a broad strategic partnership that leverages the capabilities of both companies,” Lordstown’s executive chairman Daniel Ninivaggi said.
The two companies also said they would jointly develop an electric vehicle together, although they did not give further details of the plan.
The tie-up came after the world’s biggest electric carmaker Tesla, which is owned by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, was earlier this month reported by the Reuters news agency to be planning to start mass production of its Cybertruck at the end of 2023.
That would be two years after the original target for the highly-anticipated pick-up truck that Mr Musk unveiled in 2019.
Taiwan-based Foxconn’s investment is the latest cash injection into Lordstown as it continues to run at a loss.
Separately on Monday, figures for the three months to the end of September showed a net loss of $154.4m, wider than the $95.8m loss the company reported for the same time last year.
Shares in Lordstown rose by almost 18% in extended trading in New York after the announcements.
Last week Foxconn agreed a deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to produce electric vehicles in the kingdom.
The joint venture will operate under the brand name Ceer, which sounds like the Arabic word for “drive”.
Ceer will license technology from Germany’s BMW and aims to start selling its electric vehicles from 2025.
The deal is part of Saudi Arabia’s push to move its economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.
Last month Foxconn’s chairman Liu Young-way said he hopes the company will one day make cars for Tesla as it ramps up electric vehicle manufacturing operation.
Speaking at the company’s annual Tech Day, he said the firm aimed to replicate its success in manufacturing consumer devices as it expands into making electric vehicles for major motor industry brands.
Activists throughout Asiaare concerned about the social media platform’s future under billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk.
Singaporean activist and journalist Kirsten Han uses Twitter to discuss topics that the Singapore government would prefer to keep private.
Han’s outspoken posts draw attention to migrant workers’ rights, the government’s denial of racism, and, most frequently, the hundreds of executions of non-violent drug offenders carried out in the city-state over the last few decades.
Han has been condemned on the floor of Singapore’s parliament and targeted by the police for her work, which she also tweets about to her verified account’s 29,000 followers.
In June, Han was required to turn over access to her Twitter, Facebook Instagram accounts when she was investigated under Singapore’s Public Order Act for holding a four-person vigil against the death penalty. Police cited Han’s postings on her social media accounts, including Twitter, as evidence for launching the probe, which is ongoing.
Han has no plans to stop using Twitter, but how she uses it may change as the rules governing the platform face a radical shake-up under new owner Elon Musk.
Musk plans to scrap Twitter’s identity authentication system as soon as this week, offering the distinctive blue check mark, once reserved for verified high-profile users, to anyone willing to pay $8 a month.
While Han is still waiting for the details of the changes to unfold, she is concerned about the prospect of internet trolls impersonating her and sowing confusion among her followers.
“I assume I’m going to lose the blue tick at some point, but then it also seems – as the details come out – that the blue tick verification thing is just going to be available to whoever pays,” Han told Al Jazeera.
More fundamentally, Han worries that Musk does not understand the responsibility that is now on his shoulders.
“He’s a businessman who, just from observation, has a somewhat overinflated sense of how qualified he is to do things,” she said.
“He doesn’t seem qualified or really that knowledgeable about how communication and social media and tech platforms work, and the responsibilities that they have, which is quite worrying.”
Many live in countries where freedom of speech is severely curtailed by authorities. For such users, Twitter can be a vital window to the outside world, a rare platform for open debate – often from behind the veil of anonymity – or both.
For critics, the concerns range from questions about Musk’s ideological leanings and his business interests in countries like China to doubts about his understanding of the complexities of social media.
The Tesla founder, a self-described “free speech absolutist” who has accused Twitter of exhibiting left-wing bias, has pledged to reshape moderation policies on the platform to encourage the airing and debate of a wider spectrum of views.
On Friday, Musk set in motion a radical restructuring of the company by firing about half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, including the entire human rights team, according to former legal counsel Shannon Raj Singh.
Al Jazeera did not receive a response to requests for comment sent to the Twitter accounts of the company’s communications teams or its head of safety and integrity, Yael Roth.
In countries like Myanmar, where Twitter has played an important role in sharing information since a military coup in 2021, Musk’s takeover has prompted anxiety and concern.
Despite a government crackdown on social media and both domestic and foreign media, anonymous accounts have continued to disseminate information about state-sponsored violence and anti-government protests.
Yadanar Maung, a spokesperson for Justice for Myanmar, an account with 165,000 followers, said Twitter had already been failing to counter psychological warfare and misinformation shared by Myanmar’s military administration on social media.
Now, things could take a turn for the worse as moderation becomes even more sparse and government-linked accounts proliferate, Maung said.
“We are concerned that changes will make Twitter more dangerous for Myanmar users who are under threat from an illegitimate military junta, and that Twitter under Elon Musk could provide greater space for the junta and its supporters to spread disinformation and hate speech,” Maung told Al Jazeera.
Tesla’s largest production facility is located in Shanghai, China [File: Aly Song/Reuters]
Activists are also worried about how Musk, the chief executive of Tesla,SpaceX and Neuralink, could be influenced by China, where he has major business interests.
Tesla has established its biggest production facility in Shanghai and earlier this year opened a showroom in Xinjiang, where Beijing has carried out a lengthy campaign of repression against the Uighurs and other ethnic minority Muslims, even as major Western brands publicly distanced themselves from the region.
“The worry is that if Elon Musk is potentially corrupt or trying to appease the Chinese government, he will be handing over data and he will be giving the Chinese government access to data,” Vicky Xu, an Australia-based researcher and journalist who has documented her harassment by pro-Beijing accounts on social media, told Al Jazeera.
“Twitter is such an important platform for advocacy and dissent. With Elon Musk, even if he’s never going to hand over any data to China, even if the Chinese government was not able to influence him, there’s still a psychological fear that a lot of dissidents or activists feel that this platform is just not as free as before and it is not as impartial as before or not as pro-democracy as before.”
While Twitter, like other Western social media platforms, is blocked in China, Beijing oversees a large number of state-sponsored “wolf warrior” accounts that project its messaging and monitor the social media activity of Chinese dissidents living abroad.
Many of these accounts also harass users who post about issues deemed sensitive to China, such as Taiwan’s political status or political repression in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet.
Sandra, a Hong Kong-based Chinese-language Twitter account with more than 47,000 followers, said a concern for dissidents like her is the abuse of Twitter’s function for reporting inappropriate content by state-backed accounts and bots.
The Hong Kong democracy activist said she was suspended from Twitter for 6 months in 2019 after being targeted by pro-Beijing accounts for posting about the city’s anti-government protests.
Sandra said many Chinese dissident accounts have faced similar issues, with appeals taking months to reach a resolution.
It is unclear if the situation will get worse with fewer “guard rails” on the platform, she said, while there is also concern about whether Chinese state media will continue to be clearly labelled as such.
Sandra, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sweeping crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, said she was still waiting to see how the changes would play out.
“I have not decided yet,” she told Al Jazeera.
Veteran Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk says many Thais are worried about what will happen to their personal data after Musk’s takeover of Twitter [File: AP Photo]
In Thailand, Twitter is one of the few spaces where citizens can take advantage of anonymity to debate the future of the monarchy without risking jail under the country’s tough lèse-majesté laws.
Pravit Rojanaphruk, an award-winning journalist who was previously charged with sedition for criticising the military government, said many Thais are worried about what will happen to their personal data and whether military-backed accounts will proliferate.
“Twitter is one of the two premier or most popular social media apps when it comes to political discussion. It’s the least censored in Thailand, even compared to Facebook. Many of the Thai users are actually using a nom de plume,” Pravit told Al Jazeera.
“They aren’t using a real identity when it comes to sensitive discussions about the monarchy, and we don’t know [how] Elon Musk is going to interpret this debate about using anonymous accounts.”
Before deleting his post, Tesla CEO Elon Musklinked to an unsubstantiated article about Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, tweeted an article containing a conspiracy theory about the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband before deleting the post hours later.
Musk’s tweet on Sunday linked to an article making unsubstantiated claims about Paul Pelosi’s personal life and the role it may have played in last week’s attack at his and his wife’s home in San Francisco.
Musk tweeted the article by the Santa Monica Observer, a website with a history of publishing misinformation, after Hillary Clinton posted an LA Times article about the suspected attacker, David DePape, and criticised Republicans for spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories”.
In response to Clinton’s tweet, Musk posted the article while adding there was a “tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye”.
US media outlets have linked DePape, who is accused of attacking Pelosi with a hammer, to blog posts espousing far-right and extreme views online, including the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Musk, who has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist”, appeared to have deleted his tweet several hours after posting it without explanation.
The Tesla CEO’s controversial tweet comes as his $44bn purchase of the social media platform is at the centre of a heated debate about the limits of free speech in the digital age.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has criticised Twitter’s moderation policies and accused the social media giant of having a left-wing bias.
The billionaire has stressed the need for a “common digital town square” where a wide range of beliefs can be debated while insisting he does not favour a “free-for-all hellscape”.
Critics have expressed fears that Musk’s ownership of the platform could result in a surge in hate speechand misinformation, while conservatives have heralded the takeover as a corrective to Big Tech censorship.
Before the council meets, no major decisions or account reinstatement will be made, according to the outspoken billionaire businessman.
Elon Musk has announced his intention to form a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” at Twitter in his first policy actions since taking over the social media company on Friday while emphasising that no changes to the platform’s moderation policies have been implemented thus far.
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” the outspoken billionaire businessman said amid concerns that former US President Donald Trump’s account might be reinstated.
“To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies,” he added in a later tweet.
Twitter formally became the private property of Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, on Friday, steering the platform down an uncertain path under the stewardship of one of its most vocal critics.
Scrutiny quickly turned to how the platform will operate under a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist who some users fear will turn Twitter into a global stage for hate speech and disinformation.
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
Musk’s sealing of the on-again, off-again $44bn deal ended a months-long soap opera of corporate chicanery, involving insults, threats, and lawsuits.
“The bird is free,” tweeted the billionaire Tesla founder and space pioneer in reference to the company’s logo. “Let the good times roll.”
The deal drew contrasting reactions, with former US president Donald Trump cheering the change of leadership on a platform that had banned him, while activists warned of a surge in harassment and misinformation.
European politicians were quick to signal to Musk that the continent had regulations for social media companies.
“In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” tweeted Thierry Breton, the EU internal marketcommissioner.
Musk had promised to dial back content moderation and was expected to clear the way for Trump to return to the platform.
The then-president was blocked over concerns he would ignite more violence like the 2021 deadly attack on the US Capitol to overturn his election loss.
Taking to his own Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” – but gave no commitment to rejoin if allowed.
Far-right users were quick to rejoice at Musk’s ownership, posting comments such as “masks don’t work” and other taunts, under the belief that moderation rules would now be relaxed.
‘A huge responsibility’
Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, who has characterised Trump’s rise as a sign of mounting fascism in the United States, said he would alter his approach to posting.
“For the moment I am staying on Twitter. But I am going to try to be much more careful about what I say now that Elon Musk is in charge. Cascading hate speech targeting can destroy your week,” he said.
Right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro said he gained 40,000 Twitter followers on Friday, while the actor Mark Hamill, a liberal, said he had lost almost 6,000 followers over the last three days.
Musk reportedly fired Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal and other senior officials – though the company did not reply to a request for comment and Agrawal still listed himself as CEO on his Twitter profile.
But Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer since 2017, announced his departure.
“At its best, (Twitter) democratizes communication and knowledge, ensuring accountability and equal distribution of info,” Segal said. “It’s a huge responsibility for everyone that shares in the work. I wish them strength, wisdom, and foresight.”
Musk, who is using a combination of his own money, funds from wealthy investors, and bank loans to finance the deal, has conceded he is overpaying for a company that has regularly posted eye-watering losses.
How to monetize?
Twitter says it has 238 million daily users – dwarfed by the likes of Facebook’s nearly two billion – and has not been able to monetise in the same way as its rivals.
However, it holds an outsized influence on public debate because it is the favoured platform for many companies, politicians, journalists and other public figures.
Though he has promised that Twitter will not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” Musk reportedly plans deep staff cuts that would gut teams that oversee content.
Despite Musk posting a letter to advertisers saying he wants Twitter to be a forum where rival viewpoints can be debated in a “healthy manner”, US auto giant General Motors said on Friday it has “temporarily paused” paid ads on the platform.
“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership,” said a GM spokesman.
Media watchdog Media Matters for America sounded the alarm over the future of a Musk-led Twitter, particularly the effect on imminent US midterm elections.
The platform “is now on a glide path to becoming a supercharged engine of radicalization” and a “fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery, and operationalized harassment,” the organisation’s head Angelo Carusone said.
Elon Musk, the inventor of Tesla, has become increasingly significant in discussions about the Ukraine conflict, amid new accusations that he has communicated with Vladimir Putin.
He drew severe criticism after proposing a peace plan in which Ukraine ceded Crimea to Russia.
His latest intervention involves a somewhat bizarre Twitter exchange with former Russian prime minister, senior Kremlin official, and prominent Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev.
Musk had complimented Mr Medvedev on a “pretty good troll” after he ridiculed outgoing prime minister Liz Truss.
He then asked the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia about it the current situation in Bakhmut, which has faced intense Russian shelling over recent days.
Mr Medvedev concluded (for now at least) the seemingly friendly discussion by suggesting he would see Musk “in Moscow on the Victory Day”.
Elon Musk reportedly plans on making drastic changes to Twitter’s workforce once he finalizes his acquisition of the platform.
According to the Washington Post, Musk informed potential investors that he’s considering a layoff of nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s entire staff, decreasing the number of employees from 7,500 to just over 2,000.
The Post reports Twitter had already been looking to slash its workforce by about 25 percent in an effort to shave $800 million off payroll by the end of 2023. The plan is an indication that the company was struggling with financial issues before Musk came into the picture, and provided a “golden ticket.”
Twitter filed a lawsuit against the 51-year-old in July after he tried to back out of his $44 billion acquisition. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO agreed to finalize their agreement earlier this month, asking the court to give him until Oct. 28 to secure the necessary finances to close the deal.
Before he attempted to terminate his deal with Twitter, Musk seemingly warned the company’s employees during a Q&A session that there would need to be a downsizing of the workforce upon his arrival. He considered the approach to be a “rationalization of headcount,” saying, “Anyone who is a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about.”
WaPo correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin went on to tweet, “Twitter finally replies to our scoop in an internal note to staff saying the company did not have any confirmation from Musk about his plans and that Twitter’s own, smaller-scale ‘cost savings discussions’ were put on hold once the merger agreement was signed.”
Variety reports Musk acknowledged during a Tesla third-quarter earnings call earlier this week that he was overpaying for Twitter, but also stressed “the long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value.”
After Tesla CEO Elon Muskstated that Taiwan should become a special administrative region of China, Beijing and Taipei expressed their disagreement.
The richest man in the world stated in an interview with the Financial Times that he thought the two countries could come to a “fairly agreeable” agreement.
Musk received praise from China’s ambassador to the US, while his Taiwanese colleague declared that freedom is “not for sale.”
Taiwan rules itself but Beijing claims it as part of its territory.
Last week, Mr Musk also drew criticism for posting a Twitter poll with his suggestions for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, including Kyiv giving up territory to Moscow.
Mr Musk’s comments come as the electric car maker hit a monthly record for sales in China.
He weighed in on heightened China-Taiwan tensions in a wide-ranging interview with the UK business newspaper the Financial Times, which was published on Friday.
“My recommendation… would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy,” he said.
“And it’s possible, and I think probably, in fact, that they could have an arrangement that’s more lenient than Hong Kong.”
I would like to thank @elonmusk for his call for peace across the Taiwan Strait and his idea about establishing a special administrative zone for Taiwan. Actually, Peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems are our basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question… https://t.co/KYH1Gsu3Um
On Saturday, China’s ambassador to the US Qin Gang welcomed Mr Musk’s suggestion to establish Taiwan as a special administrative zone.
He said on Twitter that “peaceful reunification” and the “one country two systems” model used in governing Hong Kong were China’s “basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question”.
“Provided that China’s sovereignty, security and development interests are guaranteed, after reunification Taiwan will enjoy a high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region, and a vast space for development,” he added.
In response, Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Washington said on Twitter: “Taiwan sells many products, but our freedom and democracy are not for sale.”
“Any lasting proposal for our future must be determined peacefully, free from coercion, and respectful of the democratic wishes of the people of Taiwan,” Ms Hsiao added.
Shihoko Goto, director for geoeconomics and Indo-Pacific enterprise at the Wilson Center in Washington DC, told the BBC that Mr Musk’s suggestions could hurt his business interests.
“Let’s bear in mind that Elon Musk is supposedly on the brink of purchasing Twitter. Of course, Twitter is banned in China because free speech is not allowed in China,” Ms Goto said.
“So if he is investing in Twitter, his company will probably not be able to operate in Taiwan which is going to be under pressure or under the thumb of China. That would be a suicidal act on the part of Elon Musk,” she added.
China sees self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing’s control.
Meanwhile, Tesla delivered 83,135 China-made electric vehicles in September, according to a report released on Sunday by the China Passenger Car Association.
That broke the previous record set by the company in June and marked a milestone for Tesla’s factory in Shanghai which has been trying to boost production.
Billionaire Elon Musk has agreed to follow through with a deal to buy Twitter at the original price, the company disclosed Tuesday, causing Twitter shares to skyrocket and possibly ending a seven-month legal saga just two weeks before the world’s wealthiest man and the social media company were set to meet in court.
KEY FACTS
Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, or $44 billion, matching the terms he agreed to in April before he later attempted to back off the deal, according to a letter dated Monday and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The brief 177-word note said Musk is willing to move forward with the deal provided there is an immediate stay on Twitter’s lawsuit to push the purchase through ahead of the five-day trial in Delaware slated to begin October 17.
The stock later surged to $52.02—just below Musk’s agreed-upon purchase price—after trading resumed shortly before the market close, a 22.3% daily rise that brought the share price to its highest level since last November.
The company’s intends to “close the transaction at $54.20 per share,” Twitter spokesperson Brenden Lee wrote to Forbes, in a statement mirroring the company’s prior comments on Musk’s hesitation.
KEY BACKGROUND
Twitter accepted Musk’s unsolicited takeover bid on April 25, three weeks after the billionaire disclosed he purchased a 9.2% stake in the company. Musk, a vocal opponent of the platform’s content moderation policy, quickly began to express cold feet and said he had concerns about the number of fake and spam accounts on the site or bots. He formally requested out of the deal on July 8, arguing Twitter has lowballed the number of bot accounts in its public filings.
Twitter sued Musk four days later and argued his reasons for backing out of the deal were invalid. The company pushed a state court in Delaware to force Musk to buy Twitter along the originally agreed-upon terms, setting the stage for a high-stakes trial later this month. As the trial date drew nearer, more revelations about both Twitter and Musk emerged.
Musk’s lawyers suggested last month his case was bolstered by a whistleblower complaint from Twitter’s former head of security, who alleged the company knowingly misled regulators and investors about the number of bots on the site. And last week, hundreds of Musk’s texts with celebrities like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fl.) were disclosed as part of the suit.
Tesla shares fell about 5% in the hour after the report, paring gains earlier in the day, before recovering to a 2.4% gain on the day. Shares of the electric vehicle maker dropped about 20% in April amid a more modest broad market decline.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“This is a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reacted to Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO shared a Twitter poll with his ideas for stopping Russia’s invasion.
Voting options that included giving territory to Russia were put to the vote by Mr. Musk’s 107.7 million followers.
In response, Mr Zelensky posted his own poll asking users if they liked the world’s richest person more when he supported Ukraine.
Other Ukrainians criticized Mr Musk.
Ukraine’s outgoing ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, used a strong expletive, which he described as his “very diplomatic reply”.
Meanwhile, Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov said: “This is moral idiocy, repetition of Kremlin propaganda, a betrayal of Ukrainian courage & sacrifice.”
Mr Musk’s ideas included votes in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia that the Kremlin says it is annexing.
The multi-billionaire said: “Russia leaves if that is the will of the people.”
President Vladimir Putin has already declared four Ukrainian regions to be part of Russia, following so-called referendums denounced as fraudulent by Kyiv and its Western allies. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.
Mr Musk also suggested the worldshould formally recognise Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014 – as part of Russia. And the world’s richest person in 2022, according to Forbes magazine, cautioned that the conflict could end in nuclear war, though added this was “unlikely”.
This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then
Earlier in Russia’s invasion, Mr Musk’s satellite internet company sent equipment to Ukraine.
That gained Mr Musk popularity in Ukraine and he was subsequently invited by Mr Zelensky to visit when the war with Russia was over.
The businessman posted his poll during a busy week when he is due to give evidence to lawyers acting for Twitter ahead of a trial set to begin on 17 October. Twitter is suing Mr Musk after he walked away from a $44bn deal to buy the social media platform.
Twitter is hoping the court in Delawarewill order Mr Musk to complete the takeover at the agreed price of $54.20 per share.
In a significant new Microsoft survey,managers and employees have fundamentally different opinions on productivity when working from home, a new survey reveals.
Bosses question whether remote work is equally productive as being in the office.
While 87% of workers felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home, 80% of managers disagreed.
The survey questioned more than 20,000 staff across 11 countries.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told the BBC this tension needed to be resolved as workplaces were unlikely to ever return to pre-pandemic work habits.
“We have to get past what we describe as ‘productivity paranoia’ because all of the data we have shows that 80% plus of the individual people feel they’re very productive – except their management thinks that they’re not productive.
“That means there is a real disconnect in terms of the expectations and what they feel.”
Remote working peaked?
Both Mr Nadella and Ryan Roslansky, the boss of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, said employers were grappling with perhaps the biggest shift in working patterns in history.
The number of fully-remote jobs advertised on LinkedIn soared during the pandemic but Mr Roslansky said data suggested that type of role might have peaked.
He told the BBC that of some 14 or 15 million job listings that are typically live on LinkedIn, about 2% of those involved remote working before the pandemic. Some months ago, that stood at 20%, and it has since come down to 15% this month.
At a time of acute labour shortages, employers are having to work harder to recruit, enthuse and retain staff. That even includes Microsoft itself, according to Mr Nadella.
“We had 70,000 people who joined Microsoft during the pandemic, they sort of saw Microsoft through the lens of the pandemic. And now when we think about the next phase, you need to re-energize them, re-recruit them, help them form social connections.”
Microsoft employees can work from home up to 50% of the time as standard. More than that requires management approval or a move to part-time work.
Some companies have struggled to impose new working arrangements and expectations.
There has been resistance to calls at Apple to return to the office three days a week from September, while Tesla boss Elon Musk has demanded 40 hours a week in the office sending an email saying: “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
An unprecedented number of people have also changed jobs since the start of the pandemic.A phenomenon Microsoft has dubbed “the great reshuffle”, sees workers born after 1997 (so-called Generation Z) nearly twice as likely to switch jobs.
“At the peak of our ‘great reshuffle,’ we saw a year-on-year increase of 50% of LinkedIn members changing jobs. Gen Z was at 90%,” the report said.
By 2030, Generation Z will make up about 30% of the entire workforce so managers need to understand them, according to LinkedIn’s boss.
As you might expect, alongside its new observations Microsoft has new products aimed at easing this potential mismatch in expectations. It is focusing on helping companies’ younger workers feel a sense of belonging, and an ability to learn in, an organization in the way staff did in the past.
Its new Viva software, for example, allows direct contact to senior managers, online teaching, and a channel to share personal photos – somewhat like a company intranet site with bells on to ring in a new world of work, which employers, in particular, are struggling to navigate.
The world’s largest electric-vehicle manufacturer has had repeated run-ins with federal safety regulators, whom chief executive Elon Musk calls “the fun police”.
Previous recalls have been due to:
rear-view cameras
bonnet latches
seat-belt reminders
sound-system software
This latest covers all four Tesla models, specifically 2017-22 Model 3 sedans and some 2020-21 Model Y SUVs (sports utility vehicles), Model S sedans and Model X SUVs.
Tesla discovered the problem with the automatic windows during production testing in August.
Owners will be notified by letter, from15 November.
Elon Musk says Tesla’s new factories in Germany and the US are “losing billions of dollars” due to battery shortages and supply disruptions in China.
The multi-billionaire also called the plants in Berlin and Austin, Texas “gigantic money furnaces”.
Covid-19 lockdowns in China this year, including in Shanghai where Tesla has a huge factory, have made it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to operate.
In recent weeks Mr Musk has been warning of job cuts at the firm.
“Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. It’s really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire,” said Mr Musk, who is the electric vehicle maker’s chief executive.
The plants are “losing billions of dollars right now. There’s a ton of expense and hardly any output,” he added in an interview with the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, a company-recognised club.
Mr Musk said the so-called gigafactories have been struggling to increase production since they were opened earlier this year.
Tesla’s site in Austin currently produces a “tiny” number of cars, partly because some components for its batteries were “stuck” at a Chinese port “with no one to actually move it”, he said.
“This is all going to get fixed real fast but it requires a lot of attention,” Mr Musk added.
The interview was recorded at the end of last month but this part of the conversation was only posted on Wednesday.
Authorities in China locked down a number of its cities earlier this year in response to a surge in Covid-19 infections.
Tough restrictions were imposed on the movement of people and materials including in the financial, manufacturing and shipping hub of Shanghai.
Mr Musk said the shutdown of Shanghai was “very, very difficult” for Tesla, which reportedly halted most of its production at its ‘gigafactory’ in the city for weeks.
The site will largely be closed again for two weeks next month for upgrading works, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited an internal memo.
This is aimed at boosting the site’s output, bringing it closer to the company’s goal of the plant producing 22,000 cars every week, the report said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.
Last week, the company raised the price of its whole range of cars in the US by almost 5%, as the cost of raw materials including aluminium and lithium rose.
This week, Mr Musk said Tesla planned to shed 3.5% of its global workforce after earlier saying that he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy.
Meanwhile, German carmaker BMW said on Thursday that it had formally begun production at its new $2.2bn (£1.8bn) facility in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.
BMW said the plant, which is its third in China, will increase its annual output in the country from 700,000 to 830,000.
President Donald Trump sided with Tesla on Tuesday, calling for California authorities to allow the reopening of the electric carmaker’s assembly plant after company chief Elon Musk said he was defying local authorities.
Trump’s comments came a day after Musk said he was restarting production at the plant in Fremont, California and after a series of angry tirades against the state’s lockdown policies to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
“California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!” Trump said in a tweet.
Musk said Monday the company was resuming production, defying authorities and escalating a feud over the Pacific state’s pandemic shutdown.
“I will be on the line with everyone else,” Musk tweeted. “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
Musk’s move comes amid rising disputes over the pace of easing the lockdowns imposed by states to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Over the weekend, Musk threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters and factory out of California as a result of the standoff.
Following Musk’s statement, Alameda County’s office of emergency services said Tesla was only allowed to maintain “minimum basic operations” until officials approve a plan.
“We are addressing using the same phased approach used for other businesses which have violated the (shutdown) order in the past, and we hope that Tesla will likewise comply without further enforcement measures,” the county statement said.
The US administration is pushing a reopening of the world’s largest economy, battered by weeks of lockdown, even as the daily death toll has generally been rising by 1,000 to 2,500 in recent weeks.
Musk has been raging on Twitter for days about his unsuccessful efforts to restart production, claiming the ban violates “our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!”
In late April, he delivered an expletive-laden diatribe during an earnings update call in which he dubbed coronavirus restrictions “fascist.
Electric car-maker Tesla will reduce staff pay and put non-essential workers on furlough while production of its vehicles is stopped due to coronavirus.
Work at its factory in Fremont, California halted on 23 March.
In a letter to staff, the company said it hoped to resume operations on 4 May, “barring any significant changes”.
Most remaining workers will face a pay cut of 10%, while director pay will be cut by 20% and vice-presidents and above will lose 30% of their salary.
The letter was shared with business news site CNBC.
Furloughing is designed to support firms that have been badly hit by coronavirus, and to prevent mass unemployment. Taxpayers’ money will help temporarily pay the wages of people who can’t do their jobs, to help companies retain them.
What does it mean if I’ve been furloughed? “As usual, for those who are on site, if you are sick or are uncomfortable coming to work, please contact your manager and stay at home. We respect your decision and you will not be penalised,” said Tesla’s Valerie Capers Workman in the letter.
The pay cut is expected to last until the end of June.
Production at Tesla’s solar panel facility in New York state has also halted.
However, several of the company’s engineers have been working on developing a ventilator using car parts to help those who fall ill with Covid-19.
On Monday, Tesla shared a video of a prototype on YouTube.
Ford and General Motors have also offered to produce ventilators and other hospital supplies.
Furloughed staff will remain contracted to Tesla but will not be paid until 4 May, should the factories reopen at that time.
“For the vast majority of furloughed employees, unemployment benefits will be roughly equivalent to normal take-home pay,” Ms Capers Workman said in her letter.
Last week, Tesla told staffing agencies that contract work would be suspended until further notice, and hundreds of temporary workers were dismissed.
Tesla’s facility in California is the company’s only car-making facility in the US, and employs more than 10,000 people.
When it closed in March, chief executive Elon Musk told staff: “I will personally be at work, but that’s just me. Totally OK if you want to stay home for any reason.”
The company originally planned to “comfortably exceed” 500,000 vehicle deliveries in 2020 and has not changed its guidance for investors.
