Tuesday may very well go down in history. And, yes, you're right. It's yet another story of Tesla's Elon Musk stealing headlines across the globe.
He really is a modern day PT Barnum. Musk is running the greatest show on earth. There just may be one problem.
Musk may be looking at jail time.
According to reports from various financial news sources, Musk's now famous "going private" tweet is subject to a lot of scrutiny via the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As of tonight, reports stemming from The Wall Street Journal indicate the SEC is looking into the matter.
Essentially, what it comes down to is whether or not Musk was being forthright in his claims. Was the funding actually secured? Also, it doesn't help that he put a specific price of $420/share out there. If he just said that he was "thinking of taking TSLA private," it would be a different animal.
All that said, I'm left wondering: Was Musk's tweet simply stock manipulation OR do you believe he's ready to move on from the public markets, Spies?
If Musk is successful in going private, it would be a $70+ billion dollar deal.
"...When you announce the price, it certainly smells like market manipulation," he added. "If any part of it isn't true, he could certainly be facing legal liability. It's surprising that the CEO of a company would announce news like that..."
"...If his comments were issued for the purpose of moving the price of the stock, that could be manipulation, and it could also be securities fraud," Pitt said. "The use of a specific price for a potential going-private transaction is highly unprecedented, and therefore raises significant questions about what his intent was. So that would have to be investigated..."
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