Elon Musk reportedly backed out of SEC deal at the last second

Yesterday, the SEC sued Elon Musk over his ill-thought August tweets about having "funding secured" to take Tesla private. (Spoiler alert: He didn't have funding secured and Tesla will remain public.) Now, CNBC reports that the SEC was very close to settling with Musk, but he backed out at the last second.

Musk would have had to pay a "nominal" fine to the SEC, but he would not have been forced to admit any guilt in the matter. All of that probably sounded pretty good. The sticking point was likely that the deal would reportedly also have prohibited Musk from serving as Tesla's chairman for two years and required the company to appoint two independent directors.

According to CNBC, sources close to Musk said that he refused to sign the deal because it would have forced him to be untruthful to himself. He also reportedly told them he couldn't live with the idea of accepting a settlement and the stain it might leave on his reputation or legacy.

As a result, Musk is now facing an SEC lawsuit that accuses him of fraud because his tweets were "false and misleading statements." The lawsuit also wants to prevent Musk from being an officer of any public company. The lawsuit also accuses Musk of picking a $420 stock price because "he had recently learned about the number's significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend 'would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price.'"

Source: CNBC



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2OY7Jgk
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me


Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more