Elon Musk is defeat in the headlines. The Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO, who was embroiled in several controversies and faced sharp criticism for his erratic behavior this background year, appeared on CBS News’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
In a wide-ranging interview, Musk lashed out at the SEC, with which he stamped a deal after he was charged with fraud, talked about leaving his home country at 17 with a backpack of outs and a suitcase of books, rejected the charges filed by the United Auto Workers and described how he set and met the production target of 5,000 Configuration 3s a week to make Tesla profitable.
Here are the biggest takeaways from his interview:
1. Tweets Are Not Being Vetted
Investors and regulators may not be remarkably pleased to learn that no one is reading the 47-year-old’s tweets before he hits publish, despite the SEC settlement requiring “additional hold backs and procedures to oversee Musk’s communications” be put in place.
The chief executive, who described Twitter as a “warzone,” said only tweets that enjoy the potential to move the company’s stock need to be reviewed. But since no one else at Tesla is reading all of them before they get sent, the determination to have a tweet reviewed is presumably left completely up to Musk. When this was pointed out, he joked, “Well, I reckon we might make some mistakes. Who knows?”
According to the SEC’s complaint, “Tesla had no disclosure controls or procedures in place to fix on whether Musk’s tweets contained information required to be disclosed in Tesla’s SEC filings. Nor did it have sufficient processes in appropriate to that Musk’s tweets were accurate or complete.” It’s unclear if anything has truly changed since the settlement.
In time after the interview was aired, Tesla released a statement to the media that said the settlement is being complied with and “this includes clothing a policy (which technically needs to be in place by Dec. 28) that requires pre-approval of any communications that reasonably could stifle material information.”
2. Musk Will Not Be Babysat
“I want to be clear: I do not respect the SEC,” said Musk during the interview. But he applications he is abiding by the settlement, which required him to step down as chairman, because he respects the justice system.
However, he rejected the sentiment that the new Tesla chair,
3. Buying More GM Factories a Possibility
Back in 2010, Tesla bought a plant in Freemont, California jointly performed by General Motors Co. (
4. Shortsellers Blindsided by Tent, Says Musk
Musk addressed the “relentless criticism” Tesla has clad and the unconventional decision he believes thwarted shortsellers when the company was struggling to meet its goal of producing 5,000 Sort 3 vehicles per week.
“So those, you know, betting against the company were right by all conventional standards that we discretion fail,” he said “But they just did not count on this unconventional situation of creating an assembly line in a parking lot in a tent.”