BloggingStocks on Tesla IPO: "Stay Away"

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams

Tesla Motors chairman Elon Musk plans to take the company public before the end of the year. Before you call your broker to get in on the ground floor, think twice. Blogging Stocks' Zac Bissonette advises prospective investors to "stay away!" He doesn't base this advice on any of Tesla's financials. In fact he says he hasn't seen a registration statement or prospectus. Instead, he's looking at the money that initial investors lost in the airline industry, the hundreds of startup automakers over the years, the internet bubble that went bust and the struggling satellite radio companies. He reminds us that "world-changing technologies often fail to lead to profits for the investors." And then he offers this last bit of advice: "If the Tesla IPO is a hot one and investors start dumping boring profitable companies to pile in, I say take the hint and run the other way." You have been warned.

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  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on May 22, 2008

    They already made the movie. "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" directed by Francis Ford Coppola, staring Jeff Bridges as Preston Tucker. Of course there are some differences. Tucker actually built about 50 cars. Here is a title for the Tesla story movie: "Musk, The Man and His Odor".

  • Jeff Puthuff Jeff Puthuff on May 22, 2008

    Musk stinks...

  • Rtz Rtz on May 22, 2008

    Tesla makes and sells one model. Reminds me of Saturn when those first hit the streets. How many years are they going to sell this unchanged model? Building a new factory from the ground up to build automobiles in Arizona or where ever is no small endeavor. That one little venture could bankrupt the company. So now they think they can take on Toyota and Honda and rule the automotive world building their very own car(whitestar)? So now they make and sell two models. How well does AC performance scale up? How much more performance potential exists in those motors? Does the existing motor have a lot more performance and the inverter is the limiting factor? Or are you battery limited?

  • Samir Samir on May 22, 2008

    I think the institutional investors will be smarter than the individual investors who gave Tesla its kick-off cash. They will look at sources of future income and see two products, one in an everlasting state of development (The Roadster) which, even if fully developed, will never be more than a niche product due to its format (two-seated roadster??). The other product is the Whitestar, which exists only in our imagination. Not a complex analysis here - until Tesla has a product, a distribution network and a customer base, the stock will be a speculation stock.

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