Elon Musk sends subtle message to disenchanted Tesla shareholders
Elon Musk is used to facing critics, haters and detractors.
He even likes these matches very much.
Sometimes he even tends to provoke his perceived enemies. Techno King, as he is known at Tesla (TSLA) – Get a free report, likes to turn opponents’ attacks into counterattacks. The serial entrepreneur is never as deadly as when he is on defense.
These opponents he knows them. He knows their angles of attack. Sure, some of these criticisms irritate him, but he always finds the line of response to dismiss the critics.
He can also rely on his legion of fans, many of whom are Tesla die-hards. They believe in his promises to transform the world and beyond our civilization. They applaud his iconoclastic side and don̵[ads1]7;t hesitate to cry genius when he announces a new product. The billionaire always knew he could count on these admirers.
The revolt of the retail investor
But what he never imagined was that some of these fans would come after him. He therefore never prepared for it because he always counted on their loyalty to him. It turns out Musk was wrong.
For several weeks now, the CEO of Tesla has been exposed to repeated criticism from some retail investors. Investor Leo KuGuan, who is the car manufacturer’s third largest individual shareholder after Musk and Oracle (ORCL) – Get a free report co-founder Larry Ellison, went so far as to hear a revolt against Musk.
“I’m 100% in Tesla bc I believe in Elon Musk and Tesla,” KoGuan wrote on Twitter on January 7. “But he’s killing SH and Tesla. If I knew, I wouldn’t invest in Tesla.”
“Elon invested ≈$200mm but withdrew $40B, Larry invested $1B, I invested over $3B, I have no choice but to act and speak up. I’m crying out to the U for help!”
The criticism of these investors is the consequence of Tesla’s delisting. By 2022, Tesla stock lost 65% of its value, meaning more than $600 billion in market value evaporated in a year. Tesla’s market cap is currently $357 billion, down from over $1 trillion at the start of 2022. During the first four trading sessions of 2023, Tesla shares lost 8.2% to $113.06.
While Musk attributes this stock market disaster to macroeconomic factors such as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes to fight inflation and the energy crisis in Europe, many Tesla shareholders believe his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter is the big problem.
They claim that when Musk set his sights on the social media platform, he completely abandoned Tesla. Worse, he has alienated many Tesla buyers by regularly attacking progressives and Democrats on Twitter.
Tesla outperforms its rivals
Retail investors collectively own 41.9% of Tesla shares as of Dec. 5, according to WallStreetZen. Institutional investors hold the largest block with 43.01% of the shares. The balance is owned by the company’s managers, i.e. 15%.
While Musk once responded to criticism a while back, he has been quiet lately. This is no doubt due to the fact that he has to observe the quiet period until the publication of the company’s results on 25 January. Until that date, the management team must remain silent so as not to influence the share price to the advantage of certain shareholders or to the detriment of others.
But Musk has just found a subtle and striking way to respond to the criticism, which has turned violent in recent days. The founder has just retweeted a chart showing that of all the major automakers present in the US market, only Tesla and General Motors (GM) – Get a free report has managed to increase sales of light vehicles in 2022 compared to 2021. All the other vehicle manufacturers have seen sales decrease compared to 2021.
Tesla saw its sales increase by 44% over a year, while GM’s sales only increased by 3%.
Musk said nothing else.
