Musk said in his 60-minute visit to CBS that he had been smoking marijuana and other actions because of his stress, and he might be impulsive, and he just wanted to express himself on Twitter. He also made it clear that "I don't respect the SEC" and revealed that he was willing to buy any factory for sale or idle by General Motors.
Author | Qi Yue
Like Hollywood stars, Tesla and SpaceX's head Musk (Elon Musk) seems to be very keen to maintain high exposure in the media.
This time, Musk was a guest on the well-known TV show CBS and exposed some hot news about himself.
When CBS host Lesley Stahl asked what he thought of people calling him a weird or capricious person, Musk replied: "I'm just myself."
Over the past few months, Musk has been controversial for his views and news posted on Twitter , which has 22.5 million followers, from the privatization of Tesla to the call of a British diver Vernon Unsworth a "pedo" just because the other party criticized Musk's plan to use micro-submarines to rescue the Thai teenage football team trapped in the cave. What's even more crazy is that he also smoked marijuana in a live online program and sucked in public.
In this regard, Musk defended himself on the 60-minute show that aired on Sunday night:
I mean, I was indeed under extreme mental pressure at the time, and it was a particularly crazy period. But if I really behave weirdly and capriciously, the whole system will be over.
The new chairman controls Musk?
Musk also responded to speculation that Tesla's new chairman Robyn Denholm could restrain his behavior - simply put, Musk believes that it is impossible.
He said on the show that it is "unrealistic" to count on Robyn Denholm to take care of himself, because despite resigning as chairman, he is still Tesla's largest shareholder (holding 20% of the shares):
I just need to call shareholders to vote and then do whatever I want.
The reason why he stepped down as Tesla's chairman was entirely the result of Musk's own death.
On August 7 this year, Musk suddenly announced on Twitter that he would privatize Tesla, but unexpectedly it caused great storms - The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused him of suspected securities fraud, believing that he made "false and misleading" statements on privatization matters, which hurt investors' interests.
After a tug-of-war, the privatization of Tesla was finally dead. Musk reached a settlement agreement with the SEC, with the cost of resigning as chairman of Tesla within 45 days. He himself paid a fine of US$20 million, and Tesla also had to pay a fine of US$20 million.
On November 8, Robyn Denholm took office as Chairman of Tesla's Board of Directors. She was previously the chief financial officer and head of strategy at Telstra and has served as a director of Tesla for five years. Musk said Robyn Denholm was carefully selected by himself.
As part of the settlement, the SEC allows Musk to re-qualify as Tesla's chairman in three years, subject to shareholder approval. But Musk said he would not be interested. "I actually prefer not having any title."
tweets need to be reviewed in advance?
On the 60-minute show, Musk not only had no guilt for the decision to privatize Tesla at that time, but also expressed his disrespect for the SEC.
"I want to make it clear: I don't respect the SEC. I don't respect them."
But Musk said he would comply with the settlement because he respects the US judicial system.
At that time, the SEC also asked Tesla to review before Musk posted the content of the tweet. But Musk ignored the SEC's provision at all, saying his tweets have not yet been under scrutiny.
Musk said that only those tweets that would drive Tesla's stock price to rise will need to be pre-reviewed. He said he used Twitter to express himself, "Some people use hairstyles (express themselves), and I use Twitter."
Musk admitted that he might be impulsive, but emphasized that he really doesn't want to follow some traditional CEO templates of words and deeds.
"I guess we might make some mistakes. Who knows? No one is perfect."
acquires rival factory
Tesla promises to accelerate production of Model 3, which is seen as the key to the company's repayment of $1.3 billion in debt due in the next six months. The company also fulfilled its commitment to make money in the third quarter.
Musk said he hopes the company will continue to make profits. Tesla will consider acquiring any factory closed by its rival General Motors (GM) — closing and laying off 14,000 employees is part of GM’s restructuring strategy.
we are likely to be interested. If they are going to sell or no longer use a factory, we will take over.
In order to increase production, Tesla came up with an emergency trick: next to the main assembly plant in Fremont, California, a tent structure building was built as the second assembly line . Just like many of Tesla's previous decisions, this approach has been ridiculed by some industry insiders.
But it was such a weird action that "raises output by 50% at the last moment," Musk told the 60 Minutes host.
Musk said that Tesla had faced an existential crisis, "It's about life and death. By all conventional standards, those bets that bets we will fail are correct. However, they did not take this unconventional situation of building tents in the parking lot as the second production assembly line."
This article comes from Wall Street News, author Qi Yue, and the original title is "Musk's self-destruction of shock information: The new chairman "can't control me" and considers acquiring General Motors' factory."
