Elon Musk 'probably would not' take money from Saudis after Khashoggi murder
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said his company “probably would not” take money from Saudi Arabia right now amid the fallout of the attempted cover-up and murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
“I think we probably would not,” Musk said during an interview on the Recode Decode podcast with Kara Swisher . “That sounds pretty bad. So that is not good,” he said of Khashoggi’s death.
In August, Musk announced a deal he said would be backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, according to Musk's takeaway from the meeting. The hypothetical deal would have taken Tesla private at $420 per share, he said. His tweet included two key words that would soon get him into trouble: “Funding secured.”
Musk said he had been approached by the Saudis several times over the past two years about taking Tesla private. Earlier this year, the Saudis purchased nearly 5 percent of Tesla shares on the open market, according to Musk, giving them a multibillion-dollar stake in the electric car company.
After the murder of Khashoggi, key players in the international business community began to distance themselves from the Saudi government amid calls for accountability in the journalist's death.
Billionaire Richard Branson suspended talks with the Saudi government about two tourism projects and an investment in Virgin’s space business. The Gates Foundation, helmed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, suspended future work with the Saudi Crown Prince’s charity . Dozens of other business leaders, including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and Ford chairman Bill Ford, dropped out of an annual investment conference hosted last month by the Saudi government.
Musk added in the interview that while he probably wouldn’t accept Saudi money right now, there are good people in the country.
“You don’t want to — if there’s one really bad thing that occurred — nail down the whole country,” Musk said.
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It seems that in the aggregate, the Saudis might be losing more than they expected. Fallout is a bitch.
It seems that in the aggregate, the Saudis might be losing more than they expected. Fallout is a bitch.
SA is a very traditional even Midieval society. Human rights are pretty much non-existent. I think they've been that way for so long and have acted this way for so long (and are so sure that there way is so obviously "right") that often doesn't even occur to them that many in the"outside world" wouldn't agree.
I'm not surprised that Musk's statement was equivacol, basiclly the way the guy is. I believe the Saudis really stepped in it, thinking that they could doing a poorly planned operation and there would be no recriminations. Ruling by fear never works in the long run.
It is a Theocracy-- a completely totalitarian government based upon a extremely rigid interpretation of the Koran.
In addition, I think the Saudi leadership can do whatever they want because the world has allowed them to get away with it for so long-- and in addition the U.S. makes YUGE amounts of money selling them advanced weapons systems-- they know that many powerful Americans want to have a good relationship with them!
I'm sure that the Saudi investigation will clear the Prince...We'll wait and see if there is any fall out from the U.S. administration.
ya think?
Yeah Musk is still trying to do damage control after he shot himself in the foot with his big mouth.
“It was just a month ago that Tesla and Musk came to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission after an investigation into tweets Musk wrote in August about taking Tesla private. The SEC at first sued Musk before reaching a settlement that required Musk and Tesla to each pay $20 million in fines. It also required that he step down as chairman for three years and that Tesla add two new independent directors and establish a system to oversee Mr. Musk’s communications, the Wall Street Journal reports.”
He now sees what happens if you cross them and thinks it is safer to take risks with somebody else's money
Nothing like being completely equivocal. Way to go out on a limb, Elon.
I noticed that (the fact that he used the word "probably"...). Either he will or he won't...and I'm sure he's already made up his mind on that....
I expect after this story fades away from the headlines, it won't be a problem anymore.