Tesla Stock Dives After Bizarre Earnings Call

Musk cut off analysts after 'boring' questions
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 3, 2018 2:17 AM CDT
Tesla's Weird, 'Boring' Earnings Call Cost It $2B
In this April 30, 2015, photo, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk unveils the company's newest products in Hawthorne, Calif.   (AP Photo/Ringo HW Chiu, File)

Tesla's share price took a major hit Wednesday after CEO Elon Musk decided he didn't want to spend a conference call on the company's earning report dealing with a lot of dull questions from analysts. Musk interrupted a back-and-forth between a Bernstein analyst and Tesla Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja about capital expenditures to say: "Excuse me. Next. Boring, bonehead questions are not cool," CNNMoney reports. Musk gave up after the next analyst, Joe Spak from RBC Capital Markets, asked whether Model 3 reservation holders had taken steps to configure their cars. "We're gonna go to YouTube. Sorry. These questions are so dry. They're killing me," the CEO said, per Reuters.

Over the next 20 minutes, Musk took a dozen questions from Gali Russell, a Tesla enthusiast and owner of the HyperChange TV YouTube channel. "Thanks for the great questions," Musk said after fielding queries on issues including Model Y production and plans for a self-driving car network. Investors were not impressed: CNBC reports that Tesla shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading, costing the company around $2 billion in market capitalization. The company posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss Wednesday. "The boring questions can also be categorized as the tough ones," AutoPacific analyst Dave Sullivan tells Bloomberg. "I hope the Tesla fans know how to swim, because without the answers to the tough questions, it looks like Musk is leading them straight into the water." (More Tesla stories.)

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