Since Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the acquisition of social network Twitter, his electric car maker's shares fell by more than 35%, and closed down just 3.6% on Friday, which was a rebound in the market after a turbulent week. By comparison, Nasdaq Composite Index fell by about 18% during the same period.
Musk first announced on April 25, 2022 that he agreed to acquire Twitter. Tesla shares closed at $332.67 that day and closed at $207.47 today, his first week of owning Twitter.
Musk spoke at the 29th annual Baron investment conference on Friday. hedge fund investor Ron Baron (Ron Baron) is now a shareholder of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter. He is generally optimistic about Musk's business. He asked the billionaire CEO how to take into account the new business.
In addition to running a reusable rocket manufacturer and satellite internet company (SpaceX), it also has a multinational electric vehicle and sustainable energy company (Tesla), and also funded and founded a brain chip company (Neuralink) and tunneling business (The Boring Company), which Musk now calls himself "Chief Twit". More formally, he is Twitter’s CEO and sole director after completing a $44 billion deal.
Musk told Baron, “My workload increased from about 78 hours a week to about 120 hours,” adding, “Once Twitter is on the right path, I think it’s much easier than managing it.”
He didn’t say who might take over as Twitter CEO, although he told his followers on Twitter that his position as the sole director and CEO of the social network is temporary.
Musk's ownership of social networks has caused some automakers, including General Motors and Audi , to suspend advertising spending there. But in the long run, it's unclear how it will affect Tesla.
Tesla has long relied on Twitter and Elon Musk's massive followers there to spread information to shareholders, and Musk uses it to promote all his companies, their products and his own self-image for free. He often encourages fans to join him on Twitter to attack people seen as enemies such as elected officials, regulators such as SEC , journalists and car safety advocates seen as overly critical of Tesla.
To manage Twitter, Musk has authorized more than 50 Tesla employees, mainly Autopilot and other software engineers, as well as several other trusted consultants and supporters from other businesses. He has not explained how the schedules of Tesla employees will be divided, how their responsibilities to Twitter and Tesla are paid or linked to each other.
At the investor conference, Musk also reiterated that Tesla still plans to develop an electric car that is cheaper than the entry-level Model 3 electric sedan. He also reiterated his goal of being able to produce 40,000 cars a day.
Musk also said that given how many batteries are needed for this level of production, and all the metals and other materials needed to make them, it seems increasingly possible that Tesla will need to be directly involved in mining rather than relying entirely on external suppliers.
As some news media have previously reported, Barron asked him if Tesla has been discussing with Glencore or considering investing in Glencore. "We have never considered investing in Glencore," Musk said, and emphasized when talking about lithium mine mining, "I'm talking about Tesla, we do it ourselves."
Tesla's stock price has fallen much higher than its automaker peers since Musk announced the deal in April. General Motors and Ford fell by about 2% and 11%, respectively, while electric car maker Rivian fell just over 5%.
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