Electric car company Tesla has had a rough few weeks, made even worse by CEO Elon Musk jokingly tweeting that the company was “completely and totally bankrupt.”
As Breitbart News has previously reported, Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla has faced a number of issues in recent weeks. Between the announcement of the recall of 123,000 Model S vehicles due to a power steering issues to reports that the company was operating on a negative cash flow while they continued to face production issues with their Model 3 car and the NTSB opening an investigation into a fatal Tesla crash in California, the company has not been doing too well. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the company’s debt last week and generally has a negative outlook on Tesla’s credit due to “the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”
Now, following an April Fools tweets from CEO Elon Musk, the company’s stock price has dropped by approximately seven percent. The tweets from Musk can be seen below;
Tesla Goes Bankrupt
Palo Alto, California, April 1, 2018 — Despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs, we are sad to report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt. So bankrupt, you can't believe it.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2018
Elon was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by "Teslaquilla" bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks.
This is not a forward-looking statement, because, obviously, what's the point?
Happy New Month! pic.twitter.com/YcouvFz6Y1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2018
While Musk may have been laughing at his April Fools tweet, investors most definitely were not. Last week, Vilas Capital Management, a hedge fund with a large short position on Tesla’s stock stated their belief that the electric car manufacturer would have to file for bankruptcy in the near future, Musk’s joke didn’t help to assuage fears that this may soon be a reality. The company has approximately $1 billion in loans due over the next year and will soon report if they have reached their production schedule of 2,500 Model 3 cars produced per week. Bloomberg reports that the company is not likely to meet that target, producing approximately half of the scheduled figure.
Tesla also angered government investigators looking into the company’s most recent autopilot crash. The company published a blog on the crash which revealed many details of the incident, which is currently still under investigation by the NTSB. “In each of our investigations involving a Tesla vehicle, Tesla has been extremely cooperative on assisting with the vehicle data,” a spokesman for NTSB said. “However, the NTSB is unhappy with the release of investigative information by Tesla.”
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