Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

It may happen. But shareholders still have to vote for it, under the guise that only non-interested shareholders get to decide and Musk and his cronies will abide by anything they decide. I listened in to part of the conference call. It was all bullshit. I can't understand why anyone would have invested in Tesla in the first place at the ridiculous valuation -- other than as a momentum trade of some sort, in which case you are not investing in it, you are simply trading price, not Musk's vision.

But how could anyone with a brain have made that investment and then sit tight while the steward of their money keeps running up debt and burning through cash, not delivering on any promises he makes to end the cash burn, and then keeps diluting the value of the shares you own -- in this case, to bail out his nearly bankrupt other entity that burned through cash and needs a bail out (which will now come at your expense)?

 

FYI. ... Tesla reported. Lost $293.2 million during the quarter (compared to a $184.2 million loss same quarter last year) when you cut through it. The conference call -- i.e. the bullshit flows -- is in an hour. The summary version will be: It's all great news. Going to deliver a gazillion cars in the second half of the year. Sure, the company is burning through cash, and keeps having to rely on endless dilutive equity offerings to raise money. And sure the BS-artist-in-chief wants to use the equity price to bail out his other company that has burned through a ridiculous amount of cash (because there is no crony capitalism money to be had any more). But it's all irrelevant, because he is going to revolutionize the world. Just be patient. He's a visionary.

Should we just dispense with the formalities and unleash the short squeeze now? . ... The short interest in the stock is between 25 and 30 percent of the float right now. Those people need to be punished again. How dare they say that the emperor has no clothes.

 

Actually had positive net cash flow for the quarter -- about $150 million. Remember those Model 3 deposits (i.e. -- the $1,000 non-interest bearing, 30-day demand notes a bunch of idiots generously handed to the company)?

On top of it, there was that $1.7 billion dilutive secondary offering. At the rate he's going, he can last a few years at their rate of cash burn. ... unless the bottom falls out on the scheme all at once.

 

Keep in mind. ... If he gets what he wants, you have to add all of Solar City's debt to the balance sheet and add its cash burn to operations.

Call starts in a few minutes. One of the idiot talking heads on CNBC said a few minutes ago: "If the stock doesn't sell off on that earnings release, it is never going to."

The way I am guessing it is: You have that huge float of short interest. And the institutions that own the stock aren't selling it. There can not possibly be any incremental buyers out there anymore, which means until sanity prevails (whenever it finally happens) it is simply a toy for the robotraders -- much the way a cat plays with a ball of yarn.

 

The call is over. Everyone is so deferential! All I was hearing was "blah blah blah blah."

This is my back of the matchbook math (and one of the analysts sort of got to it). They said that cash flow for the quarter was positive $150 million. But it includes those Model 3 deposits (about $300 million worth if you do the math on their numbers). If you net out the $300 million in one-time deposits from the $150 million, you have cash burn of $150 million. Add in another $295 million of Capex and it means they burned through somewhere on the order of another another $450 million in cash during the quarter. It also sounded like their margins are shrinking, at least relative to previous guidance. Any other company, and this would have been the most dismal call ever. We'll see how it plays tomorrow.