, Columnist
Elon Musk Is Terrible at Being Public, Not Tesla
Shareholders have been forgiving and generous.
The mouth that roared.
Photographer: Joshua Lott/Getty Images
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Elon Musk, after hate-tweeting journalists and short-sellers, shunning analysts and disparaging rescue workers, seems to have found a new No. 1 enemy: public markets.
Put aside for now the question of whether Musk has or could actually put together the more than $60 billion in financing he would need to make good on his tweet that he’s looking to take Tesla Inc. private at $420 a share. Perhaps a more important question is whether going private would actually be good for the electric car company. It’s hard to see how that could be.