One of Musk's tweets cost Tesla $20 million. When stock prices are going right, he is the richest man in the world. And Elon Musk has the ability to make fun of Twitter. But some of his tweets cost millions and raised the question:
Is Elon Musk crazy or special?
Judging by the fact that he single-handedly tuned the American space program, built the world's most famous electric car and developed Paypal, he's pretty cool.
But judging by products like Cybertruck, flamethrowers, and all of Musk's tweets, it might sound a little crazy.
Maybe Elon Musk is tired of just browsing on Twitter
In this week's edition of "Kernen" on TV 2 PLAY, expert David Guldager takes a closer look at the man behind SpaceX and Tesla to try to answer the question:
Is Elon Musk crazy or shiny?
Below, digital trends expert David Guldager, finds five examples of how a simple tweet from the wrong side of Elon Musk can have dire real-world consequences. Today we will show two examples:
He said in one of his tweets:
"Tesla's stock price is too high in my opinion."
In 2020, Elon Musk managed to cut 10% of Tesla's value in one tweet.
It's close to the most expensive tweet ever, says David Guldager.
This was the first time the world had seen how influential he really was. And how much damage it can actually do.
After all, it had a huge impact on him and many shareholders, not least the company that lost $14 billion.
David Guldager says the mere fact that a CEO manages to write such a tweet is unheard of in the financial world.
Fortunately for those who lost a lot of money to the tweets, it only took three days before Tesla's stock price went up.
He said in a second tweet:
"I'm considering acquiring Tesla privately for $420. Funding secured."
In 2018, for example, Tesla stock sold for $420.
Brave tweet Considering that he himself was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tesla, the $420 price tag has never been seen before, so it would technically be insider trading.
But the number 420 refers to a cannabis joke and was in no way a serious tweet, says David Goldger.
420 is slang for smoking cannabis in one form or another. Among other things, many people celebrate April 20 (in 4/20 American date format) by smoking cannabis.
But the US Federal Reserve, which monitors the US stock market, did not think it was a funny joke.
The tweet resulted in a $20 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission so he could escape charges of insider trading and fraud.
In addition, Tesla was fined $20 million, and Elon Musk was forced to resign as Tesla's president for three years.
And here, too, Musk got the famous "Twitter babysitter", which he has not yet gotten rid of, says David Goldger.
Part of the settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission was that all future Tesla-related tweets from Elon Musk must first be approved by an attorney.
A judge rejected the scheme until late 2022 to overturn it.
