Why Hate Elon Musk?
Elon Musk has made headlines with behavior many people find offensive. He also has completely changed two of the world’s most important industries.
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For years, Elon Musk had a reputation as a chief executive officer with odd habits. If he had problems, they were largely self-inflicted. His takeover of Twitter has triggered thousands of layoffs and worries that he will not keep hate speech off the platform. What is forgotten in this mix is that he built the first viable electric car company, which is still the largest. He also built what may be the most successful rocket firm in history.
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Tesla announced quarterly results this week and beat expectations handily. Revenue reached $24.32 billion, just above consensus figures, and earnings of $1.19 per share also topped forecasts. Gross margins dropped to a recent low of 25.9%. That figure may remain low, as Tesla has reduced car prices to improve sales. It is also the byproduct of what may become a price war in the industry. (Click here for the most efficient cars on the market.)
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Tesla’s car sales may reach 2 million this year, keeping it well ahead of its competition. The only market it will not dominate completely is China.
Tesla management said there were a number of costs that could be cut as the company moves into what it forecasts as a brutal recession. That means gross margins may not suffer significantly.
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It is worth returning to one number. In a world in which every major car company in the world has invested billions of dollars into electric vehicles, Tesla expects sales to rise to 2 million vehicles this year.
Musk’s other creation, SpaceX, can reuse the rocket’s first stage by landing it after takeoff. Other rocket companies are set up so that these components fall into the sea. That means consumers had to pay over and over again for what Musk can charge much less for. Even NASA uses SpaceX rockets today.
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Musk also has built a low-orbit satellite internet system called Starlink. It will have over 3,000 satellites circling the earth that will offer internet service virtually everywhere in the world. It is currently in use by the Ukrainian government.
Musk has made headlines with Twitter and behavior many people find offensive. He also has completely changed two of the world’s most important industries.
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Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
