I’ll start by reassuring our listeners who are worried about the boss of Tesla, Twitter and Space X: Elon Musk is not desperate. According to the count of the American agency Bloomberg, his fortune still amounts to 137 billion dollars. Many, many, many of us would do!
That being said, the Musk saga has financial misfires. Where do they come from? Essentially from the stock market collapse of Tesla, the champion of the electric car which lost 65% of its value, or 650 billion dollars: it is monumental. Added to this, the acquisition of Twitter and the first decisions of Musk for the management of the site which feed the concerns, in particular of certain advertisers who have decided to suspend their investments. It does not take more to cast doubt on the future of the social network for which the businessman has paid the colossal sum of 44 billion dollars.
This doesn’t bode well for the future of the empire…
You have to be a thousand times careful. There is no danger in delay. We are not talking about a bankruptcy, far from it. We are actually witnessing the bursting of the bubble Tesla, valued more than 1000 billion dollars at its peak, which is much more than all the manufacturers on the planet combined, while it produces less than 2% of the cars sold in the world. world. Tesla deflates on the stock market, but there is no industrial disaster for all that. Sales of electric cars increased again last year by 40%, a performance that is simply unique on the automotive planet!
As for the questions on the future on the future of Twitter, they are legitimate but today without answers. To say that Elon Musk paid dearly for the site is not false. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that all social networks went down on the stock market last year. Facebook has lost 2/3 of its value in one year, and Snpachat no less than 80%.
Finally on the space front, the Musk empire has never been so powerful. With 60 rocket launches last year (less than ten for Ariane), Space X crushed the competition, and won key contracts for the future, in particular for the American reconquest of the moon. Space is also Starlink, its constellation of satellites, about to compete with telecom operators around the world.
To hear you, a rebound is largely possible…
If we stick only to the diagnosis and the prospects that I have just described, it is very probable. But it’s not that simple. The Tesla boss’s empire is unlike traditional businesses. Its value and its success depend closely on the moods of its boss, who is both the main asset of the group but also its Achilles heel.
Brilliant visionary, talented industrialist, ace of communication, so many qualities that made it possible to build this empire. But there are also provocative Tweets, positions that sow doubt.
Musk is a bit like Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde of business, capable of the best and the worst. Unpredictable, illegible, it has baffled investors and observers in recent months. Will he succeed in reassuring, restoring confidence in 2023? He alone can. Will he? Does he even intend to? It is too early to tell !