Goldman Sachs Plays A Rotten Role In Tesla-SolarCity Deal

Summary

You’ve not met Aswath Damodaran? Allow me to introduce you.
Damodaran lays bare the many follies & misdeeds behind the TSLA-SCTY fairness opinions.
In the Tesla fairness opinion kitchen, Goldman Sachs wrote the recipe, furnished the ingredients, and supplied the spoon; Evercore and Lazard merely stirred the pot.
Goldman Sachs has been consistently wrong in forecasting Tesla performance, and (very quietly) already has slashed the 2017 revenue forecast it gave Evercore and Lazard.
Ben Kallo stops by with an important reminder for us all.

Tesla’s New Autopilot Software Won’t Fix its Reputation

Tesla’s Head of Communications departs

Since Reyes’ departure from Tesla, Khobi Brooklyn, Director of Communications, became the most senior employee in the department and the de facto “Head of Global Communications”. We now learn that she is also leaving the automaker just a few months after Reyes.

As previously mentioned, Reyes has been VP of Communications at Tesla on two occasions. First from 2009 to 2012, when he left for a 2-year stint at Square, a financial service and mobile payment company. He then came back to Tesla in 2014. Brooklyn joined Tesla around the same time as Reyes (2009) and followed him to Square and back to Tesla again in 2014.

The company didn’t hire or promote another Vice President when Reyes left in March, but sources familiar with the situation told us that the company’s General Counsel and Elon Musk’s former divorce attorney, Todd Maron, among others had oversight and executive responsibilities of the communications department.

We asked Tesla for a comment on the situation, but our request went unanswered. The company rarely comments on employee matters.

Tesla’s New Lease Financing Disclosure: Who Writes This Stuff?

Beyond the minimal short-term effect of the new announced financing agreement, the fact that Tesla continues to choose every way possible to “spin” its narrative in a dissembling way is another red flag for Tesla investors. The Deutsche Bank financing agreement is just a drop in the bucket of all of the capital that Tesla will need over the next three years but the company just couldn’t resist suggesting otherwise. What’s amazing to me is that there is also not a lot more scrutiny about Tesla’s claims that its May 2016 financing was supposed to be all the capital needed to support “full production” of the Model 3 and to complete any additional investment needed for the Gigafactory.

Tesla Shareholder Sues … DON’T BURN OUR MONEY TO SAVE YOUR CRAPPY SOLAR CO.

Elon Musk‘s trying to save his legacy off the backs of Tesla shareholders … so claims a Tesla shareholder who’s suing the icon.

The shareholder claims Elon’s move to infuse his failing SolarCity with $2.6 billion of Tesla stock is outrageous, self-involved and irresponsible.

According to the docs … Elon’s trying to run Tesla like a privately held company, moving money around not because it’s right for the car company but to build his own legacy of changing the world.

The lawsuit claims Elon doesn’t have his eye on the ball … that Tesla itself is operating in the red, burning cash, and he should focus on building electric cars. The stockholder calls Elon’s obsession with SolarCity “a dangerous distraction.”

The shareholder says SolarCity is a stinker … the company went on the auction block recently and didn’t attract a single bidder.

How Elon Musk Used A Broken Marketplace To Play Us All

Elon Musk has controlling stakes in 3 companies: Tesla, SolarCity, and SpaceX. Tesla and SolarCity are publicly traded. SpaceX is not publicly traded. This document’s focus will be soley on the financial interdependencies of the companies. There are also incestuous business practices, and nepotism within the leadership of each company Musk controls.

We hope to illustrate simply and clearly the immense risk the US government has taken with your money by giving it to a man who is essentially telling them what they want to hear while picking their pockets doing it.

That SolarCity Spread Spells Trouble For Tesla

With SolarCity owing money to SpaceX — Musk’s unlisted rocket developer — and insiders, and Tesla needing cash itself, the electric-vehicle maker’s highly valued shares are critical. In a rational world, holders of those shares would consider SolarCity’s wide discount alongside the fact that, despite this apparent bargain, no other bidders have emerged, and conclude Tesla is clearly overpaying and they should vote the deal down.

One twist they have to contend with, though, is that, in the absence of near-term profits, the value of Tesla’s stock is inextricably bound up with belief in the abilities and vision of Musk himself. While the decision to buy SolarCity may have dimmed that aura somewhat, a potential collapse at SolarCity if the deal doesn’t go through could be even more damaging — one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations. Nothing is simple once you’ve entered the Muskplex.

Stop Elon From Failing Again

THE ONE STOP DATABASE ON STOPPING ELON MUSK