Fortune (March 22)
“Investor Danny Moses, best known for his oracular bet against mortgage-backed debt before the 2008 stock market crash, is warning of another economic red flag.” Moses believes “the market has not yet accounted for the negative economic impact of the mass cuts to government jobs carried out by the Elon Musk-championed Department of Government Efficiency.” While “disruptions in consumer confidence” are already apparent, they “have yet to be priced into the market.” He expects an “unvirtuous cycle” to result “as more fired federal workers look for private sector jobs” and “find fewer opportunities because of shrinking revenue streams in government contracts.”
Tags: 2008, Debt, Disruptions, DOGE, Economic, Government jobs, Impact, Investor, Mass cuts, Mortgage-backed, Moses, Musk, Negative, Private-sector, Red flag, Stock market crash, Unvirtuous cycle, Warning
Financial Times (March 20)
Though Accenture “did not cut its full-year earnings guidance, as some analysts had expected,” the consulting group “has warned that Elon Musk’s efforts to slash US government spending have started to affect its revenues.” It also highlighted “threats from global economic uncertainty.” Government contracts account for approximately 8% of Accenture’s revenue, and the firm’s shares “are now down 15 per cent since Trump’s inauguration in January.”
Tags: Accenture, Analysts, Consulting, Earnings guidance, Economic uncertainty, Expected, Government spending, Musk, Revenues, Shares, Slash, Threats, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (December 24)
“Congressional Republicans have a new headache: Elon Musk.” Republicans have grown “used to the drawbacks of working with Trump,” especially the need “to anticipate what would draw the president’s wrath.” Now, however, they need to anticipate “what will bring them negative attention from Musk. They can’t count on either man to telegraph his views well ahead of time or privately; they will just have to keep a social media tab open.”
Tags: Congress, Drawbacks, Headache, Musk, Negative attention, Republicans, Social media, Telegraph, Trump, Wrath
Forbes (April 27)
“The market capitalization of LVMH, the company chaired by the world’s richest person Bernard Arnault” reached $498 billion Thursday morning, surpassing “that of Tesla, the firm led by the world’s second-richest person Elon Musk.” The move came “as Arnault’s lead on Musk as the richest man extends to over $70 billion.”
Tags: $498 billion, $70 billion, Arnault, Chair, LVMH, Market-cap, Musk, Richest, Tesla
Gizmodo (January 12)
“Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has broken the world record for the person to lose the largest amount of personal wealth in history.” After losing an estimated $182 billion since November 2021, Musk has displaced the previous record “set in 2000 by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son.” Nevertheless, “Musk still remains the second-richest person in the world, falling right behind LVMH’s CEO Bernard Arnault.”
Tags: $182 billion, Arnault, CEO, History, Japan, Lose, LVMH, Musk, Personal wealth, Richest, Son, Tech investor, Tesla, Twitter, World record
BBC (December 19)
The majority (57%) of votes cast in a poll conducted by Elon Musk were in favor of “Musk standing down as Twitter CEO.” The move “has either spectacularly backfired – if Musk was looking for an ego-boost – or it has been a huge success in getting him off the rather large hook he has found himself caught on since his purchase of Twitter.”
Irish Examiner (December 1)
“Why did Elon Musk purchase Twitter? His official answer — to defend free speech and democracy — is so unconvincing that the question won’t go away. Musk’s repeated appeals to these ideals to justify important decisions he has made since taking over are so confounding that they raise deep suspicions about his motives.”
Tags: Confounding, Decisions, Deep suspicions, Democracy, Free speech, Ideals, Important, Justify, Motives, Musk, Purchase, Twitter, Unconvincing
Financial Times (November 11)
The bankruptcy of “Sam Bankman-Fried’s business empire includes billions of dollars of illiquid venture capital investments… including exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boring Company.” The giant sprawl of his “venture capital portfolio will add to the complexity of the insolvency proceedings, which itself includes more than 130 companies controlled by Bankman-Fried. FTX’s collapse is among the most dramatic failures in the crypto industry not just this year, but since the creation of bitcoin more than a decade ago.”
Tags: Bankman-Fried, Bankruptcy, Bitcoin more, Business empire, Complexity, Crypto, Exposure, Failure, FTX, Illiquid, Insolvency, Investments, Musk, SpaceX, Sprawl, VC
Wired (October 2)
“The SEC’s ‘punishment’ of Elon Musk is exactly what Tesla needed.” Though these results were probably unintentional, the settlement will “shore up Tesla’s leadership structure, save Musk from himself, and put both the company and its leader on firmer footing.”
Tags: Leadership, Musk, Punishment, SEC, Settlement, Tesla, Unintentional
The Economist (April 7)
“America’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles is under pressure. Mr Musk is fighting battles on many fronts and they all exacerbate his main threat: a financial squeeze that could eventually push Tesla over the edge…. Rising interest rates, a wobbly share price and a continued inability to meet its own production goals would all conspire to make it harder for the firm to find capital. It does not help that General Motors, Volkswagen and other big rivals are making massive investments in EVs.”
Tags: Capital, EVs, GM, Interest rates, Manufacturer, Musk, Production goals, Share price, Tesla, U.S., Volkswagen
