'Brain Drain' at Tesla May Undermine Musk's Strategy
*By Britt Terrell*
Tesla is bleeding top talent, and investors are concerned the electric carmaker can't possibly be profitable by the second half of 2018 as its chief executive Elon Musk predicted.
Musk sent a [memo to employees](https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-ceo-musk-says-company-is-flattening-management-structure-inreorganization-1526308678) Monday saying he was "flattening" the electric carmaker's management structure as part of a company-wide reorganization. The reorganization comes after Tesla announced that its engineering chief would take a leave of absence and another senior executive left for Waymo, a competitor in the race to develop self-piloted vehicles.
"It definitely has an effect and I think you can correctly assume that these people had a lot to do with the company's day-to-day," said Aaron Cole, the managing editor at Motor Authority. "What this means going forward, we're not entirely sure."
An analyst at Morgan Stanley recently [cut the company's target price] (https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-ford-could-be-stalled-1526395206) from $376 to $291, signaling a loss of faith in the stock as Tesla struggles to hit production targets for its Model 3 vehicle ー the linchpin in Musk's strategy.
"There's only so many hours in the day and Musk has said that he's sleeping in the office and that he's doing everything that he can but there's only so much that one person can do," said Cole.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/tesla-restructures-as-company-bleeds-talent).
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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