In any case the leveraged buyout has been structured with the intent of killing the business. There was never any sincere hope of paying off the $13bn debt, and the intent was all but proven when they almost immediately stopped paying rent on their offices.
i don’t know that this is certain. Withholding rent is not an uncommon tactic to force a landlord to renegotiate a lease (in fact, that was the stated reason for withholding rent, for whatever Elon’s statements are worth). Certainly a very dirty one, and one that could blow up in his face if the landlord called his bluff and evicted him (last i heard they were handed an eviction notice in June, but I assume that’s either currently being litigated or already settled). It may have been HIS intent, but that doesn’t mean his shareholders weren’t intent on being repayed.
Regardless, I think ‘shareholder’ is a bit misleading (even if completely accurate and justified), because people (possibly the original commenter) think of CEO’s having fiduciary obligation to shareholders for publicly traded companies, and that’s not the case here.
There are other contractual obligations he would have to his co-investors and lenders (more serious ones I think) if he’s found guilty of intentionally tanking the company. I think that’s probably why he’s being so vocal here about it being the fault of the advertisers; if he tanks the company, whether he’s held to those contracts or if he’s allowed to declare bankruptcy depends on whether the plaintiff’s can prove he tanked it intentionally. If he did (as I think is pretty clear to most people at this point) and he’s found guilty of that, he’d be held liable for the total repayment of those loans plus whatever damages determined.
While he himself didn’t pay $44b for twitter, he could end up personally paying that much if all of the above comes to fruition, and that’s worst-case for him. Considering his net worth is mostly tied up in his other companies, he could stand to loose most of his net worth. If he gets tied up in a fraud trial, chances are high that his other companies’ stock values would plunge, too (TSLA has a beta value of 2.3, which means it’s more than twice as volatile as the rest of the market).
TLDR: Elon has every reason to be completely loosing his shit
i don’t know that this is certain. Withholding rent is not an uncommon tactic to force a landlord to renegotiate a lease (in fact, that was the stated reason for withholding rent, for whatever Elon’s statements are worth). Certainly a very dirty one, and one that could blow up in his face if the landlord called his bluff and evicted him (last i heard they were handed an eviction notice in June, but I assume that’s either currently being litigated or already settled). It may have been HIS intent, but that doesn’t mean his shareholders weren’t intent on being repayed.
Regardless, I think ‘shareholder’ is a bit misleading (even if completely accurate and justified), because people (possibly the original commenter) think of CEO’s having fiduciary obligation to shareholders for publicly traded companies, and that’s not the case here.
There are other contractual obligations he would have to his co-investors and lenders (more serious ones I think) if he’s found guilty of intentionally tanking the company. I think that’s probably why he’s being so vocal here about it being the fault of the advertisers; if he tanks the company, whether he’s held to those contracts or if he’s allowed to declare bankruptcy depends on whether the plaintiff’s can prove he tanked it intentionally. If he did (as I think is pretty clear to most people at this point) and he’s found guilty of that, he’d be held liable for the total repayment of those loans plus whatever damages determined.
While he himself didn’t pay $44b for twitter, he could end up personally paying that much if all of the above comes to fruition, and that’s worst-case for him. Considering his net worth is mostly tied up in his other companies, he could stand to loose most of his net worth. If he gets tied up in a fraud trial, chances are high that his other companies’ stock values would plunge, too (TSLA has a beta value of 2.3, which means it’s more than twice as volatile as the rest of the market).
TLDR: Elon has every reason to be completely loosing his shit
I’m just picturing Elon slinging shit like arrows from a bow. LOOSE!
I’m leaving it, is a much better description of his current mental state.