Elon Musk on Friday sent an email to all of Tesla, urging his employees to keep working diligently in the face of mounting pressure from federal regulators and a crashing stock price.
From the email:
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2018 1:14:53 PM
To: Everybody
Subject: You’re doing an incredible job
Ignore all distractions. One more hardcore weekend and we will be victorious. Thanks for being amazing,🖤 Elon
This email comes fewer than 24 hours after the SEC sued Musk for making false statements about the company, including his August claim that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share. The SEC is also recommending that Musk be barred from helming a public company.
Even Musk’s most ardent supporters criticized him for walking away from the SEC’s settlement offer. Gene Munster, a managing partner at venture capital firm Loup Ventures, said that removing Musk from Tesla might be good for the company.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Ross Gerber, CEO of wealth-management firm Gerber Kawasaki — one of Musk’s fiercest supporters — expressed disappointment with Musk for not taking the SEC deal. He also said he no longer had confidence in Tesla’s board.
(If you are a Tesla employee or customer who has a story to share about a car or experience with the company, give me a shout at llopez@businessinsider.com.)