Elon Musk: ‘Thanks to my sense of humor, Tesla saves media costs’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has just had a court appearance related to the controversial M&A deal in 2016 when Tesla acquired SolarCity. During the trial, Elon Musk said that he had a good sense of humor and thanks to that, Tesla had to do less media work.

“If we create entertainment for people, they will write stories about us and so the company doesn’t have to spend money on advertising – money that could be used to reduce car prices.”

“I have a sense of humour. I think I’m quite funny.”

Some people who watched “Saturday Night Live on May 8 hosted by Musk” disagreed. Musk received mixed reviews after that show.

Reportedly, Musk mentioned his humor at the trial in response to a question from a lawyer representing the shareholders. Accordingly, the lawyer alleges that Musk violated his fiduciary duty by promoting a deal worth more than $2 billion with SolarCity, in which he was also the largest investor.

In 2016, Elon Musk held two unprofitable businesses, Tesla and SolarCity Corp. The South African-born billionaire decided to ‘cut losses’ by closing one to merge into one.

Five years later, Elon Musk was summoned to court to clarify the $2.1 billion acquisition that day.

The plaintiffs, including several pension funds that invest in Tesla stock, argue that there is ambiguity here in acquiring a “family” solar company that is no longer profitable. SolarCity was founded by two of Elon Musk’s cousins, Lyndon Rive and Peter Rive.

The main question here for Elon Musk, who currently owns about 22% of Tesla shares, is whether or not Musk has covered all of this in this deal. Proving that is not easy because other Tesla shareholders have all accepted the transaction.

Elon Musk’s lawyers also argued that SolarCity was worth much more than when Tesla bought it and other members of the Board of Directors like Kimbal Musk made independent decisions without the influence of his brother Elon Musk. .

Other issues revolved around whether the opinions of the Tesla Board of Directors conflicted with each other and whether important information about the deal was kept private from shareholders.

If the lawsuit is lost, Elon Musk may have to return the money from this deal to Tesla. The return value could be equal to the purchase price of SolarCity at the time if the judge finds that the solar company was worthless at the time Tesla agreed to buy.

The lawsuit file shows that Elon Musk proposed to buy SolarCity to the Tesla Board in 2016. The plaintiff alleges that SolarCity had financial problems and that the Tesla Board was not provided with this information.

Before being acquired, SolarCity had a net loss of $769 million and $375 million in 2015 and 2014.