Will Musk really take Tesla off the stock exchange?

Tesla boss Elon Musk announced in a tweet that he was considering taking his company off the stock market. As a result Tesla's share price rose rapidly and the US Security and Exchange Commission began making inquiries about whether the message was based on fact and why it was made via Twitter. Europe's commentary columns are also puzzling over the tweet.

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Tages-Anzeiger (CH) /

Putting an end to the suffering

The idea of taking Tesla private is not as crazy as one might think, the Tages-Anzeiger believes:

“Analysts, journalists and many investors expect regular stock market successes from quarter to quarter. Then there's the possibility of betting on a company's lack of success via bear raids. Not only for Musk, but also for many other entrepreneurs this is 'torture', as Musk himself put it. Instead of delighting in entrepreneurial progress (or, as has happened often enough in Tesla's case, correcting entrepreneurial mistakes), company directors are often forced to spend much of their time explaining drastic fluctuations in stock prices to investors.”

NRC Handelsblad (NL) /

The showman knows how to get attention

There is a strategy behind Musk's tweet, NRC Handelsblad suspects:

“Whenever Musk gets bad publicity you can assume he's about to come along with something spectacular. ... Musk's announcements are not always reliable. He misses deadlines and gives up on his test balloons. ... But at the same time he is Elon Musk, one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the world, who has achieved amazing things and heads particularly innovative companies (although Tesla has never made a profit). Again and again he puts on his own spectacular show as the world watches, enthralled. And in these shows many things are not what they appear to be.”