Will Elon Musk's Tweets Hurt Tesla In the Long Run?
*By Kavitha Shastry*
Shares of Tesla fell Friday morning after CEO Elon Musk's latest tweet seemed to reignite drama between him and the SEC.
"Just want to \[say\] that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!" the often-erratic exec [posted](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1047943670350020608) Thursday afternoon.
The apparent jibe came just days after Musk settled civil securities fraud charges with the regulator, agreeing to step down as chairman for three years and pay a $20 million fine, with Tesla ($TSLA) paying an additional $20 million. Part of the deal reportedly also required him to get approval for all tweets related to his company before posting.
Whether Musk's new tweet puts that agreement in jeopardy is unclear ー just hours before the post, a federal judge, who still must sign off on the deal, asked both Musk and the SEC to submit letters justifying why the settlement is "fair and reasonable".
All this stems from another Musk [tweet](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026872652290379776) in early August in which he claimed to have "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 a share, what would have been more than a 20 percent premium at the time. Shares spiked on the statement, but pulled back sharply after Musk admitted a deal hadn't yet been reached and ultimately [backed off](https://www.tesla.com/blog/staying-public) of plans entirely.
The SEC launched an investigation into whether Musk violated securities laws by making "reckless" statements that caused such dramatic movements in the stock and lost some investors significant amounts of money. The agency was reportedly close to a deal when Musk pulled out at the last minute, prompting it to file a lawsuit last Thursday that was settled over the weekend.
Musk was [reportedly](https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-cuban-prodded-teslas-elon-musk-to-settle-sec-charges-1538678655?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=3) encouraged to reach an agreement by Mark Cuban, who settled insider trading charges from the SEC five years ago. The Dallas Mavericks owner told Musk that fighting such charges would distract him from running his companies.
In addition to Tesla, Musk is also CEO of SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/tesla-shares-continue-to-spiral-after-musk-pokes-fun-at-sec).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
