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Elon Musk is used to facing critics, haters, and detractors.
He even likes these fights a lot.
Sometimes he even tends to provoke his supposed enemies. The King of Techno, as Tesla is known (TSLA) – Get a free reportHe likes to turn his opponents’ attacks into counterattacks. A serial entrepreneur is never a killer as when he is on the defensive.
These enemies know them. He knows their angles of attack. Certainly some of these criticisms annoy him, but he always finds a line of response to fend off the detractors.
He can also count on his legion of fans, many of whom are die-hard Tesla fans. They believe in his promises to transform the world and beyond our civilization. They applaud his rebellious side and don’t hesitate to cry over his genius when he announces a new product. The billionaire always knew he could count on these fans.
The Retail Investor Revolution
But what he never expected was that some of these admirers would come after him. So he never warmed up to her because he always counted on their loyalty to him. It turns out that Musk was wrong.
For several weeks now, the Tesla CEO has been the target of repeated criticism from some retail investors. Investor Leo KuGuan, he is the automaker’s third-largest individual shareholder after Musk and Oracle (ORCL) – Get a free report Co-founder Larry Ellison went so far as to declare a revolt against Musk.
Kogowan wrote on Twitter on January 7: “I’m 100% in Tesla bc, I believe in Elon Musk and Tesla, but it kills SH and Tesla. If I knew I wouldn’t invest in Tesla.”
“Elon invested 200mm JPY but got 40 billion dollars, Larry invested 1 billion dollars, I invested more than 3 billion dollars, I have no choice but to act and talk. I yell at U for help!”
These investors’ criticism is a result of Tesla’s stock market rout. In 2022, Tesla stock lost 65% of its value, evaporating more than $600 billion in market value in a year. Tesla’s market capitalization is currently $357 billion, down from more than $1 trillion at the start of 2022. During the first four trading sessions of 2023, Tesla shares lost 8.2% to $113.06.
While Musk attributes this stock market debacle to macroeconomic factors such as: Federal ReserveAggressive interest rate hike to fight inflation and the energy crisis in Europe, many Tesla shareholders believe his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter is the big problem.
They claim that when Musk set his sights on the social media platform, he left Tesla altogether. Even worse, he has alienated many Tesla buyers by regularly attacking progressives and Democrats on Twitter.
Tesla outperforms its competitors
The retail investors together own 41.9% of Tesla stock as of December 5, according to Wall Street Zen. Institutional investors own the largest block with 43.01% of the shares. The balance i.e. 15% is held by company executives.
While Musk once responded to some criticism a while ago, he’s been quiet lately. No doubt this is due to the fact that he must observe the quiet period until the company’s earnings release on January 25th. Until that date, Musk’s management team remained silent so as not to influence the share price in favor of some shareholders or at the expense of others.
But Musk has just found a surprisingly subtle way to respond to criticism that has turned violent in recent days. The entrepreneur just retweeted a chart showing that of all the major automakers in the US market, only Tesla and General Motors (GM) – Get a free report It managed to increase its light vehicle sales in 2022 compared to 2021. All remaining automakers saw their sales decrease compared to 2021.
Tesla saw its sales increase by 44% in one year while General Motors increased sales by only 3%.
Musk said nothing else.
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