
After watching their investments swoon during weeks of drama and questionable behavior of Chief Executive Elon Musk, Tesla shareholders finally had something to be happy about Monday.
All it took was Musk writing a $20 million check to settle fraud charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Oh, and Tesla doing the same. And Musk stepping down as Tesla’s board chairman.
With all of that coming down on Saturday, Tesla’s shares surged 17 percent to $310 Monday as Wall Street hoped that Musk’s settling with the SEC would bring some stability to the electric-car maker. In a way, Musk got off with a slap on the wrist, as the SEC initially sought to remove Musk as Tesla’s CEO, and ban him from running any publicly traded company in the United States.
In addition to Musk and Tesla agreeing to pay $40 million in penalties to the SEC — and Musk stepping down as the company’s chairman, and remaining ineligible to be chairman for three years — Tesla also agreed to appoint two new independent board directors. The board will have 11 directors, and set up a new committee of independent directors that will, according the SEC, “put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee Musk’s communication.”
It was Musk’s communication that got him into hot water in the first place, as the SEC based its initial fraud charges on Musk tweeting out on Aug. 7 that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private for $420 a share. The SEC said it believed Musk knew that taking Tesla private was “was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies,” and that “his statements about the possible transaction lacked an adequate basis in fact.”
Gene Munster, principal and director with Loup Ventures, said Musk’s settlement with the SEC makes sense for Tesla investors because it means the company’s visionary and best known figure will remain involved in Tesla’s operations.
Munster also said that there is a chance that the lawsuit and settlement could be a “wakeup call” for Musk to take it easy when it comes to his public behavior–it was less than a month ago that Musk smoked a joint on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast–and especially when its comes to his use of Twitter.“If Musk can step away from the external stuff that doesn’t matter, he’ll make the game that much easier for himself, and that will be good for everyone,” Musk wrote in a research note.
By early Monday, Musk hadn’t made any Tesla-related statements on Twitter, at least not directly. But he did tweet out a link to the video of Naughty By Nature’s 1991 hit “O.P.P.” — followed by a winking emoji.
Naughty by Nature 😉https://t.co/muZdxJWjyZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2018
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