, Columnist
Musk Plays a Dangerous Game With His Analyst Roast
The sell-side has an important function, whatever Tesla’s boss thinks.
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Most quarterly earnings calls are a waste of time. Analysts congratulate management on a “great quarter” and then ask about a seemingly trifling matter. Big picture questions, or ones that really get to the heart of the matter, are as rare as thoughtful, unscripted answers from management. Providing they have all the data to update their financial models, analysts go away content, if often unenlightened.
Rinse and repeat three months later, ad nauseam. Tesla Inc.’s earnings call on Wednesday was a long way from pedestrian — read my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Liam Denning for more on what happened. But, in a nutshell, Elon Musk chided analysts for asking “boring” questions about the carmaker’s capital needs.