Big Tesla Shareholder Mounts a Rebellion Against Elon Musk

[Hydrogen]

Leo KoGuan is one of the largest retail investors in the electric vehicle manufacturer.

Elon Musk is under siege.

The billionaire entrepreneur has been the object of public attacks for several weeks now by some of Tesla's major and most vocal retail shareholders.

The more the stock of the manufacturer of electric vehicles tumbles, the more the attacks of these individual shareholders redouble and become violent.

There is one that stands out: it is Leo KoGuan, a  Chinese American investor. KoGuan claims to be Tesla's third largest retail shareholder after Musk himself and Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle  (ORCL) - Get Free Report.

In recent days, KoGuan has been attacking Musk on a daily basis. He went, as he says himself, from a fan boy of the Techno king, Musk's title at Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report, to the No. 1 opponent of the CEO. He no longer hesitates to accuse Musk of wanting to destroy the value created at Tesla.

'If I Knew, I Wouldn't Invest in Tesla'

It should be noted that the serial entrepreneur has not yet responded to any attack from KoGuan. Tesla releases its 2022 fourth quarter results on Jan. 25. Until then, the executives of the company are required to observe a quiet period, as required by stock market regulation. They cannot discuss elements that could influence the share price.

"I am 100% in Tesla bc I believe in Elon Musk and Tesla," KoGuan wrote on Twitter on Jan. 7. "But he is killing SH and Tesla. If I knew I wouldn’t invest in Tesla."

"Elon invested ≈$200mm but took out $40B, Larry invested $1B, I invested over $3B, I have no choice but to act and speak out. I cry out to U for help!"

KoGuan's anger and revolt are due to Tesla's stock market rout. In 2022, Tesla stock lost 65% of its value, translating to more than $600 billion in market capitalization evaporated in a year. Tesla's market value is currently $357 billion, down from over $1 trillion at the start of 2022.

While Musk attributes this stock market disaster to macroeconomic factors like the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike to fight inflation and the energy crisis in Europe, many Tesla shareholders, including KoGuan, believe that his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion is the big problem.

They claim that when Musk set his sights on the social media platform, he completely left Tesla behind. Worse, he has alienated many Tesla buyers by attacking progressives and Democrats on Twitter regularly.

"We want Elon back to Tesla, but has new seductive beauty named Twitter. Twitter is giving him 'dear leader' power that he craves to decide who wins, loses and dies," blasted, on Jan. 8, KoGuan, who invested about $3 billion in Tesla shares.

'Blind Cult Fanboys'

To a Twitter user pointing out that Musk had lost $200 billion in personal wealth on paper due to Tesla's stock market crash, KoGuan said that was not the case.

"No no no!" the investor responded. "Not only he abandoned Tesla, his capital is also disappeared! He’s the greatest financial genius of our time. He cashed out $40B, his investment in Tesla is not nil, zero, but negative -$39B, but he owns 13.4% + vested 304 million shares. Paper lost $200B is phantom."

"Correct," agreed Ross Gerber, another important Tesla shareholder who has criticized Musk in recent weeks. "Elon, hasn’t lost anything. He cashed out over $40 bil…"

KoGuan's revolt and his call for rebellion are nevertheless very badly taken by some Musk fans and members of the Tesla community. The latter defend the tech mogul and accuse the investor of hypocrisy. To which KoGuan responds by denouncing what he calls the cult of Musk.

"Everyday you tweeted about love and how you respect him," one Twitter user tweeted at KoGuan. "As soon as stock plunged you reveled your face . Hope stock goes lower so we can filter people like you."

"Dude, I am protecting blind cult fanboys from themselves," the investor responded. "I was his blind fanboy, but no more. I can’t rescue Tesla alone. We need all SH and Institutional fund managers to correct the anomaly of Tesla governance bc we love Tesla. We don’t abundant the one we love; we rescue it."

He believes the time has come to limit Musk's powers at Tesla. For him, the board of directors must play its role.

"Leo, with all due respect, rather than stirring a rebellion (which will fail), how about working on solutions?Given your share count, @MartinViecha can be reached and can convey your concerns to CEO and BoD? Pulling retail shareholders in this 'battle' feels inappropriate," tweeted at him a Twitter user who describes herself as a fan of Musk.

"I reached to both BOD and the one last year. We got unfulfilled promises. You, Elon’s fangirl, and Gary [Black, another Tesla shareholder] did petition for buyback but got the BOD and the one’s silent treatment," KoGuan responded.

"Desperate situation requires desperate move," he added. "We are hopeless. Doing nothing is not an option!"

BOD stands for board of directors. "The One" refers to Musk.

He repeated the same call for action on Jan. 8.

"I contacted the board and the one for about 1 year, what I got was nothing or at best only empty promises. Actually, from these interactions I found out Tesla is one man show company but it is no longer a family business. It is a public company with more than 100,000 employees."

KoGuan, however, plans to remain a large shareholder of Tesla.

"Here is my promise unless the great Captain Larry Ellison buys more Tesla shares, I plan to have about 50 million shares to become the 2nd largest individual shareholder of Tesla by 2026," the investor said. "I welcome blind cult followers competing w/me who will own the most shares by 2030?"


https://www.thestreet.com/technology/big-tesla-shareholder-mounts-a-rebellion-against-elon-musk

....


This is interesting:

KoGuan's anger and revolt are due to Tesla's stock market rout. In 2022, Tesla stock lost 65% of its value, translating to more than $600 billion in market capitalization evaporated in a year. Tesla's market value is currently $357 billion, down from over $1 trillion at the start of 2022.

While Musk attributes this stock market disaster to macroeconomic factors like the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike to fight inflation and the energy crisis in Europe, many Tesla shareholders, including KoGuan, believe that his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion is the big problem.

To a Twitter user pointing out that Musk had lost $200 billion in personal wealth on paper due to Tesla's stock market crash, KoGuan said that was not the case.

"No no no!" the investor responded. "Not only he abandoned Tesla, his capital is also disappeared! He’s the greatest financial genius of our time. He cashed out $40B, his investment in Tesla is not nil, zero, but negative -$39B, but he owns 13.4% + vested 304 million shares. Paper lost $200B is phantom."

Does anyone remember a time when bitcoin was criticized for exhibiting too much volatility.

While traditional investments like stocks and bonds were considered more stable and reliable HODL investments by some?

Of course, that was pre pandemic era. Before stocks like TSLA (tesla) lost 65% of their value inside of a single year. 

Here tesla's claimed 3rd largest investor KoGuan claims that the twitter deal is the issue behind tesla's large devaluation in 2022. I always wondered why Elon Musk offered to buy twitter for $40 billion which to my mind is about 10 times more than its worth. If such is the case, can it be said that Elon Musk only has to succeed in making twitter profitable for the buyout to be considered a success. Or does twitter have to redeem itself to the value of $40 billion staked on it, in order to break even.

Tesla is known to sell merchandise in exchange for dogecoin. There have been rumors that tips in bitcoin or cryptocurrency support would be rolled out for native use on twitter in the future. Elon has been strangely silent on topics like this, which many have speculated upon for some time.

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[jackg]

I think $8-10B is a reasonable valuation for Twitter (based on quick revenue and profitibility stats I can find - ie it didn't make a profit since 2019 but is still pretty well known and used).

Wasn't there reports of Tesla stock doing 14x or something during the pandemic or just before it? I don't know how it's managed to sustain its valuation here and hasn't fallen back further (though I don't think I've ever read any content, or found any, that's been pro Elon). I think he's too focussed on other businesses to an extent where companies might be able to undercut him or replace him on a lot (like spacex and starlink) and if those go, what's next?


I was wondering earlier how Microsoft managed to transition CEOs fairly seamlessly and to an extent where Microsoft have been revived by their new team from what I can tell. I guess investing in a person by investing in a company only does well while that person is still there an actively focussed  . Sounds like a board's failing to learn, adapt and diversify talent - which could bring Elon's eventual downfall.

[Hispo]

Everything is fun, games and memes till' the money starts to escape, it seems.
I have kept an eye on Tesla stock and I must say that is remarkable the way that price has descended and I would be also very upset if I was heavily invested.

In my opinion, it is as if Musk did not care about the price of Tesla, he is aware the price of that company is affected by his behavior and personal image and yet does not prioritize Tesla. I wonder what he is playing...  

[The Sceptical Chymist]

KoGuan is a Chinese-American, but Jesus he writes like a texting troll.  You'd think if he was writing things from the perspective of a major Tesla shareholder he'd be a little more eloquent.

Tesla stock might have been valued at over $1 trillion and lost 65% of its value, but if the data I'm looking at is correct, it currently has a P/E of 34.83.  That's high, even if Tesla is a growth stock--so all that lost market cap was probably inevitable, just an overdue correction.  Why this guy is screaming his brains out because his investment tanked is beyond me.  Musk probably did make a mistake by delving so heavily into left-wing politics, since that's obviously tarnished his reputation, but as far as Tesla and their investors go....it's futile to whine about volatility.

[mk4]

You'd expect that a person as wealthy as him would be a lot smarter than this. What did he expect? That $TSLA will just continue to skyrocket forever despite it being totally overvalued by multiples? Not to mention that Elon was and has always been totally allowed to sell his shares. The way he describes it is that Elon did an exit scam lmao.

[adaseb]

Honestly The amount of people who were blinded by Elon and thinking Tesla was going to be the next Apple is just crazy. There was some kid who invested his fathers retirement into Tesla and ended up losing $10 million dollars.

And what is funny is that the stock didn’t even drop that might. It peaked at $400 and bottomed at $100. Look at other stocks or some cryptos which fell more than that. Even look at Facebook which is a huge company and it also had a huge crash. And there is Netflix and many more. You don’t see people attacking their ceos due to stock loses. It only seems to happen to Tesla investors.

[Sithara007]

I had a good laugh after reading through all the arguments from this KoGuan idiot. Most of the American stocks are down. Netflix has lost more than half of its valuation since 2021 end, and Meta has lost almost 70%. Even AAPL and Alphabet are down by almost 40%. There is a market correction ongoing now and some of the stocks with inflated prices are getting corrected.

And the most laughable argument is this:

Elon invested ≈$200mm but took out $40B, Larry invested $1B, I invested over $3B, I have no choice but to act and speak out. I cry out to U for help!

Elon invested $7.5 million back in April 2004, during the series A funding. Back then the Tesla shares were valued at $0.49 apiece (taking in to account the stock splits, it would be $0.03 per share. Because each of the shares back in 2004 are worth 15 shares now). He made additional investments during Series C funding. Now the Tesla stock is valued at $119.77. This is how Elon got $40 billion from his $200 million investment. I am surprised that despite investing so much, this KoGuan guy doesn't know anything about Venture Capital and the returns from stock market.

[stompix]

Tesla shares skyrocket:
Twitter experts: Tesla shares are overpriced, this is insane, shares should be 10x times less than with their car production, this is manipulation!
Tesla shares drop 75%
Twitter experts: Tesla is doomed, it was obvious, they will go bankrupt, so what if they sold a record number of cars!

You'd expect that a person as wealthy as him would be a lot smarter than this. What did he expect? That $TSLA will just continue to skyrocket forever despite it being totally overvalued by multiples?

Here is an older article about this guy:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/retail-investor-built-7-billion-tesla-stake-using-trading-strategy-2021-11
and this is the interesting part:

But a wave of margin calls amid the 2020 pandemic sell-off almost wiped out KoGuan's entire Tesla position.

Funny how he does the same thing as Elon, seeking attention on Twitter while criticizing him!

[so98nn]

Why not? He must be pissed with the actions of Elon Musk and how he reacts to everything around him. It is definitely saddens when a billionaire who could do miracles acts like this, the childish play really. Imagine one day different shareholders selling out his company’s share, it can put the company as whole in jeopardy. Yes he has money but he has money in every sector and when it comes down to the businesses which are publicly listed could destroy the whole economy. I believe Elon should really take these things seriously. Like way seriously!

[Fortify]

This is interesting:

KoGuan's anger and revolt are due to Tesla's stock market rout. In 2022, Tesla stock lost 65% of its value, translating to more than $600 billion in market capitalization evaporated in a year. Tesla's market value is currently $357 billion, down from over $1 trillion at the start of 2022.

While Musk attributes this stock market disaster to macroeconomic factors like the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike to fight inflation and the energy crisis in Europe, many Tesla shareholders, including KoGuan, believe that his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion is the big problem.

To a Twitter user pointing out that Musk had lost $200 billion in personal wealth on paper due to Tesla's stock market crash, KoGuan said that was not the case.

"No no no!" the investor responded. "Not only he abandoned Tesla, his capital is also disappeared! He’s the greatest financial genius of our time. He cashed out $40B, his investment in Tesla is not nil, zero, but negative -$39B, but he owns 13.4% + vested 304 million shares. Paper lost $200B is phantom."

Does anyone remember a time when bitcoin was criticized for exhibiting too much volatility.

While traditional investments like stocks and bonds were considered more stable and reliable HODL investments by some?

Of course, that was pre pandemic era. Before stocks like TSLA (tesla) lost 65% of their value inside of a single year. 

Here tesla's claimed 3rd largest investor KoGuan claims that the twitter deal is the issue behind tesla's large devaluation in 2022. I always wondered why Elon Musk offered to buy twitter for $40 billion which to my mind is about 10 times more than its worth. If such is the case, can it be said that Elon Musk only has to succeed in making twitter profitable for the buyout to be considered a success. Or does twitter have to redeem itself to the value of $40 billion staked on it, in order to break even.

Tesla is known to sell merchandise in exchange for dogecoin. There have been rumors that tips in bitcoin or cryptocurrency support would be rolled out for native use on twitter in the future. Elon has been strangely silent on topics like this, which many have speculated upon for some time.

I've never liked Elon so maybe extremely biased but he has truly lost his way since his disastrous purchase and overpayment of twitter, it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. There's no doubt he has a certain level of intelligence and he was definitely in the right place, with bags full of money from his previous dealings, to grow tesla early on. However his own vanity has caused this massive downfall which was in some ways inevitable. Tesla is now failing because all the other car companies have caught up in most aspects and no longer need to buy carbon credits which propped Tesla profits up for so long. Now it will just be one among the crowd and eventually fade back into obscurity as it is super expensive and not mainstream enough, in many ways it was the "iphone" version of cars which people used to show off but has a way higher price tag which is unsustainable for long term success.

[hatshepsut93]

Does anyone remember a time when bitcoin was criticized for exhibiting too much volatility.

While traditional investments like stocks and bonds were considered more stable and reliable HODL investments by some?

But Bitcoin is not a stock, it's a currency, and being volatile is a very bad thing for a currency, it makes it unattractive for users. Imagine if US dollar showed the same volatility - prices in stores would change every day, and planning something even 2-3 weeks ahead would be hard, because the price could change by 5-10% unpredictably.

And as for investing, stocks can be analyzed. Lots of people predicted that Tesla is overpriced. But with Bitcoin no one can ever make an accurate prediction where it will go next.

[Oilacris]

Does anyone remember a time when bitcoin was criticized for exhibiting too much volatility.

While traditional investments like stocks and bonds were considered more stable and reliable HODL investments by some?

But Bitcoin is not a stock, it's a currency, and being volatile is a very bad thing for a currency, it makes it unattractive for users. Imagine if US dollar showed the same volatility - prices in stores would change every day, and planning something even 2-3 weeks ahead would be hard, because the price could change by 5-10% unpredictably.

And as for investing, stocks can be analyzed. Lots of people predicted that Tesla is overpriced. But with Bitcoin no one can ever make an accurate prediction where it will go next.

Totally different and incomparable between stocks and digital currencies but it turns out that people do really love up on making comparison since both does have the opportunity for you to make money
in long term which means that you could deal off on making some investment with these things.

I dont know the story about rebellion against Musk but arent they aware the risk about investing on stocks or shares on a company? Everything could turn shit in an instant
and this is what they should put up into their minds.

[adaseb]

The issue with Tesla investors is similar to Bitcoin pretty much. You need to understand that back in Jan 2020 it was $30 and back in 2013 it was like $3. It peaked at $400 and created euphoria kind of like with Bitcoin and people were expecting $1000 Tesla stock.

However many were shorting it because it was over valued. Many shorters got burnt. And the problem with most investors is that they never sold at $400 but probably kept buying more and more when it dipped. And now they are all carrying a huge bag with a large average price and they are very bitter about it.

[franky1]

Tesla shares skyrocket:
Twitter experts: Tesla shares are overpriced, this is insane, shares should be 10x times less than with their car production, this is manipulation!
Tesla shares drop 75%

hate to admit it.. stompix got it right

tesla was over priced
2022 was the correction

..
its the same with bitcoin.. it peaked to a PREMIUM in 2021 so obviously it was going to correct after a ATH

we see it all the time with people buying bitcoin at $50k in 2021, they see it move to $70k and for that month think they made the best choice... and then the correction.. wondering "why is it correcting"

[stompix]

Why not? He must be pissed with the actions of Elon Musk and how he reacts to everything around him

And in order to save the falling price of shares, which has absolutely nothing to do with both the car and the production but with the general economic downturn, the third largest owner of shares has ability nothing better to do than go on a rampage on Twitter, because that will definitely help, right?
All public companies have shareholders meeting where he could have said what he felt like was needed to say, with that much money invested of course he could have called both the current CEO and Musk himself and had a talk with him but no, let's just throw some more fire on this and let's scare away everyone that would think of buying now and drive the rice even lower because that's how you stop stocks from falling down, you have a Twitter tantrum!

Tesla is now failing because all the other car companies have caught up in most aspects and no longer need to buy carbon credits which propped Tesla profits up for so long. Now it will just be one among the crowd and eventually fade back into obscurity as it is super expensive and not mainstream enough, in many ways it was the "iphone" version of cars which people used to show off but has a way higher price tag which is unsustainable for long term success.

So the iPhone model is an unsustainable long-term business model? Lol!
How long is the long term here, cause from 2007 till now it keeps pushing records sale after record sale!
And what has Musk to do with the others keeping up with innovation, is he at fault the others are doing the same things he did?

[adaseb]

Tesla wasn’t the only overpriced stock. Most tech stocks were overpriced. Look how badly Netflix and Facebook have corrected over the past year. However you don’t have people calling out their ceos because the stock tanked.

Tesla stands out because it has followers that are almost a cult pretty much. They listen to everything that Elon says. Remember when doge crashed in price? People were pissed because Elon pumped it on Twitter and people bought at $0.50 a doge because they assumed it would go to $10 a coin and are now longing the bag.

[hugeblack]

Is the one-person or one-CEO model of a company a great idea? I don't know, but investors should think seriously about the period after Elon Musk. What will happen if he dies?
There are many companies that collapsed once the founder or the main development partner died.

We also do not forget that the year 2023 and the energy crisis will force many companies to compete with Tesla, and thus put more pressure on the price.

[avikz]

When you invest your money into a whimsical leader like Elon Musk, it's usually a gambling! When things go well, you win and when they don't you loose. That's exactly what is happening in Tesla right now. Elon is way too busy with Twitter.

I believe big corporations need to follow the leadership model of Berkshire Hathaway. The only job of Mr. Warren Buffett is to find right people for leadership and give them targets. He meets his CEO and the leadership team once every quarter. So the operations of the company is not dependent on Mr. Buffet. Tesla is heavily dependent on Musk and his charisma. That should not happen!