Finance

EINHORN SLAMS TESLA: ‘Years of over-promising and under-delivering from a promotional CEO’

David Einhorn, founder and president of Greenlight Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid - David Einhorn, founder and president of Greenlight Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New YorkThomson Reuters

David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital just threw shade on Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Greenlight opened its third-quarter investor letter sent Friday October 28 with this quote from Dave Pell, editor of NextDraft:

“It’s pretty amazing that we live in an age when a CEO of two public companies can give a talk about colonizing Mars and shareholders don’t see that as a warning signal.”

He is obviously referring to Musk. Greenlight’s second quarter letter finished with a quote about Tesla from Adam Jonas at Morgan Stanley, where the auto analyst said Tesla’s most valuable asset was the relationship it had with its capital providers.

Greenlight’s third quarter letter goes on to say:

“It’s not so amazing when one considers that those same complacent shareholders have been willing to look past years of over-promising and under-delivering from a promotional CEO. Elon Musk’s ability to spin a yarn and keep a story going seems to mesmerize his investors, blinding them to the challenges the company is facing.”

Tesla reported a stunning, if somewhat complicated, third-quarter earnings beaton Wednesday October 26. Tesla chief Elon Musk said at the time that probably” won’t raise capital early next year, a key question for the company.

Business Insider’s Matt DeBord argued in an article after the results thatElon Musk is the greatest car salesman who has ever lived.Einhorn seems to be arguing that the “promotional CEO” has sold investors the Tesla story, too.

Greenlight was betting against Tesla’s stock as of earlier this year.

ValueWalk first reported on the letter.

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