Tesla’s Chairwoman of the Board, Robyn Denholm, has denied {that a} report claiming the board has looked for a brand new CEO to switch Elon Musk, the one constructive transfer it will have made in years.
Musk additionally commented on the report.
Yesterday, we shared a Wall Road Journal report that claimed Tesla’s board had thought of hiring an govt search agency to probably exchange Musk as CEO, amongst different issues, together with pressuring Musk to spend extra time at Tesla.
We famous that if the report is correct, it will be the primary time the board has stood as much as Musk after years of letting him do as he pleases at Tesla, regardless of being a minority shareholder.
They’ve backed his each transfer, granted him a $55 billion CEO compensation package deal, and remained silent when he threatened Tesla shareholders that he wouldn’t develop AI merchandise at Tesla until given a bigger, extra controlling share of the corporate, or determined to hearth Tesla’s complete charging crew to make an instance out of the pinnacle of the crew.
Tesla’s then-third-largest particular person shareholder, after Musk, Leo KoGuan, advised Electrek final 12 months that he couldn’t get his considerations about Musk heard by the board.
Most just lately, they haven’t addressed the protests at Tesla shops and product boycotts, that are attributed to Musk’s involvement in politics, angering a good portion of the inhabitants and Tesla’s shopper base.
In consequence, Tesla’s gross sales are crashing, however the board by no means ever hinted at contemplating blaming the corporate’s prime administration till the WSJ report.
Now, Tesla issued a press release signed by Chairwoman Robyn Denholm denying the report:
Earlier right now, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had contacted recruitment corporations to provoke a CEO search on the firm. That is completely false (and this was communicated to the media earlier than the report was revealed). The CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk and the Board is extremely assured in his means to proceed executing on the thrilling development plan forward.
Musk shared the assertion and added this remark:
It’s an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the Wall Road Journal would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to incorporate an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of administrators!
It’s honest to say that Tesla, and Musk specifically, have been identified to disclaim stories that turned out to be true.
The WSJ claimed to have reached out to each Musk and Tesla earlier than publishing, and that neither responded.
Electrek’s Take
It’s fairly hilarious that, lastly, the board is reported to be doing the precise factor, and it rushes to disclaim it. It’s actually the board’s job to plan for the CEO succession. Musk is splitting his time between 6 completely different main tasks and Tesla deserves a dedicated CEO.
However: “hey! Woah, no, we aren’t looking for a brand new CEO as a result of that may imply we aren’t Musk’s private puppets.”
Whereas I did observe to take the WSJ report with a grain of salt because the unnamed sources did seem to return from an govt search agency that wasn’t chosen, and a few Tesla traders, I are likely to consider them greater than Tesla and Musk right here.
They did say that they reached out to each, which they’re now denying. That is normal apply and could be stunning if it didn’t occur. What could be much less stunning is for Tesla and Musk to not reply since they don’t have a press division.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the board began floating the concept of doubtless changing Musk as leverage towards him to commit extra time to Tesla.
However your complete factor is ridiculous. Attempting to get Musk to spend extra time at Tesla is counterintuitive to saving the corporate.
Let’s be trustworthy, any CEO from every other automaker that finds itself within the scenario that I’m about to explain would have been fired a very long time in the past:
- Launched a single new automobile in 5 years, and it’s a business flop
- Quickly declining gross sales
- Quickly declining gross margins
- Large protests and boycotts of your product attributable to its CEO’s mindless involvement in politics
- CEO promising full self-driving {hardware} on hundreds of thousands of automobiles and solely admitting 6 years later to be incorrect – needing all these automobiles to be retrofitted.
Any a type of is a fireable offense, and but, Musk is stacking them up whereas the board cashes a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands in inventory choices.
