This is barely believable. At Tesla’s Q1 results conference call, Elon Musk refused to answer two questions from two sell-side analysts, calling the queries “boneheaded” and “boring.”
Sanford Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi: “And so where specifically will you be in terms of capital requirements?”
Musk: “Excuse me. Next. Boring, bonehead questions are not cool. Next?” […]
RBC’s Joseph Spak: “The first question is related to the Model 3 reservations…”
Musk: “We’re going to go to YouTube. Sorry. These questions are so dry. They’re killing me.”
Explaining himself on Twitter later, Musk defended his refusal:
The “dry” questions were not asked by investors, but rather by two sell-side analysts who were trying to justify their Tesla short thesis. They are actually on the *opposite* side of investors.
At the next results call, he might as well say that asset managers aren’t really investors. Buying stocks with someone else’s money isn’t really investing, right?
The questions Musk called boneheaded were perfectly legitimate, even necessary. If the Q1 newsletter had all the answers, he could have reprimanded the analysts for not doing their homework. Their questions would still be legit – otherwise, what’s the point of answering boneheaded questions in your corporate earnings newsletter?
Perhaps things aren’t going Musk’s way anymore and he’s starting to crack up.
[…] first, it seemed no less bizarre to me than Elon Musk’s attacks on sell-side analysts in May for their supposedly bearish view of the […]