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Ladies and gentlemen, we have a drama on Tesla's board of directors! I live.
I'm going to read tea leaves because James Murdoch rarely speaks on the record. Last week, The New York Times said that "some directors" thought that Murdoch could do a very good job as the new chairman of the Tesla board, now that Elon Musk is forced to resign by a settlement to the SEC.
I would bet $ 420 that James Murdoch is one of the directors who think James Murdoch is the favorite, based on one sentence, which has very probable source: "But Mr. Murdoch did not volunteer for the job he has not discussed it with any other director. Here's the tea leaf part: Only Murdoch knows if he had this discussion or not. Even a confidant or assistant can not speak categorically of all his conversations; you would need a clause saying "to the best of knowledge of the source". It's possible that NYT spoken to all other directors to write this sentence, but I have a reason to think that this is not true: the absence of a sentence that reads as follows: "Murdoch refused to comment." This suggests that Murdoch commented – but not on the record.
This week, The Financial Times goes on to say that yes, James Murdoch is actually a leader:
Two people informed of the discussions said that Mr. Murdoch, who is currently non-executive director of Tesla, was the lead candidate for the position, which is required by the SEC to be an independent chairman. Another person said that external options were still under study.
It is probably interesting to note that Murdoch returned the comment to Tesla. It is likely that he is not one of the two who escaped. FT that he is the main candidate. Honestly, at this point, he does not have to! He already told NYT!
What is really remarkable here is happening in this graf, however:
Musk is also known to favor Antonio Gracias, Tesla's chief independent director, but he was informed that Mr. Gracias may not be sufficiently independent because of his long-term involvement in Mr. Musk's companies. Mr. Gracias' company, Valor Equity Partners, invested in Tesla in 2005, selling its shares of the company's IPO in 2010. It also invested in SpaceX, Mr. Musk's rocket business.
Interesting. Musk answered a FT tweet who linked the article, simply saying, "This is incorrect." I'm not totally is it certain that the antecedent of "this" is in the tweet – that Murdoch is the favorite? This Musk favors Gracias? All? – But I also know that if there is a fight in the meeting room and it seems that there is one, it is in the interest of the whole society to deny it. Indeed, Musk is known to have denied truthful facts just to stalk people, so who knows if this is "incorrect"?
Gracias and Murdoch would both be friends with Musk. So why should Musk prefer Gracias to Murdoch?
The first private equity firm in Gracias went bankrupt after four years. Its neighbor, Valor Equity – established in 2001 through government borrowing – initially focused on anti-wrinkle cream merchants, rope factories and plastic payment card manufacturers, according to the FT. In 2005, Gracias invested in Tesla and cashed in when the automaker became public in 2010; He also invested in SpaceX, Musk's rocket business, and possibly in SolarCity, Tesla's repurchased solar panel company, acquired in 2016. He was also involved in the contract between Musk's Boring Company and the city. from Chicago, as a prominent donor to Rahm Emanuel.
He is deeply rooted in Musk, and he owes it a lot. These two things could allow Musk to keep more control than he would with Murdoch.
Murdoch is the second son of Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul better known for his sordid tabloid empire that includes Fox News in the United States and the United Kingdom that included the printing of real uncensored boobs in his journals until his death. In 2015. As many people in the media, I have a critical issue of survival to keep an eye on what the Murdoch are doing, as they tend to integrate Kool- Aid Man in a publication and Murdoch at the height: new editors (often Australian), shorter articles, more percussive. titles, more photos. Oh yes! Shortly after my first full-time job in journalism, News Corp launched a huge unsolicited offer. The Wall Street Journal and essentially nailed the Bancroft family by giving up the paper. (James was heavily involved, according to Michael Wolff, The man who owns the news, a biography of James' father.)
James Murdoch, a Harvard dropout, began his activities with a label, Rawkus Records (which included Pharoahe Monch, Mos Def and Talib Kweli); he was bought by his father's company in 1996, and Murdoch was only 24 years old. At age 27, he was sent to Asia where he revitalized a television service in Hong Kong; at 30, he became CEO of BSkyB. He took the leadership of 21st Century Fox in 2015, but he will no longer stay in the company once the Disney acquisition is over.
Murdoch has gone from success to success with one exception: the hacking scandal. Mr. Murdoch stepped down as CEO of BSkyB in 2007 to take a leading role in the supply chain, News Corp., as Executive Chairman of News International (the UK part of News Corp.). It is under his leadership that the hacking scandal has become public. Basically, reporters used the factory's standard PINs to access people's voicemail, usually celebrity voicemail. Nobody cared especially until it came out that The news of the world used the default pin of Milly Dowler's phone, which had been kidnapped and murdered in 2002. In 2011, Murdoch closed the paper and testified before Parliament about a settlement he had approved. We still do not know how much he knew.
Frankly, I do not think Musk really cares about Murdoch's role in the hacking scandal. What I bet Is Make yourself nervous, this is Murdoch's reputation as an artist of the defenestration. Murdoch is more skilled with the media than Musk – except that Murdoch prefers to remain confidential. He is, with his brother Lachlan, the most likely primary source for much of Gabriel Sherman. The strongest voice in the room, a biography of Roger Ailes, founder of Fox News and nixonien in 2014. The book was not enough to rid Ailes of the painting, but a sexual harassment scandal at Fox News was. Murdoch also got rid of Bill O'Reilly in the process.
Gracias is indebted to Musc; Murdoch has his own ambitions. And if Murdoch thinks that Musk's behavior – on Twitter or otherwise – is out of place, President Murdoch could theoretically convince enough of the board to dismiss Musk.
It turns out that Musk has already been fired as CEO: from the company become PayPal. according to The wars of PayPal by Eric M. Jackson, Musk was dethroned in part because he wanted to abandon the PayPal brand in favor of X, the original name of his start-up, and transfer the customers to a new platform. form. Jackson's position is both poorly written and useful, but his assessment (branding issues, poor technology infrastructure) has been echoed in Ashlee Vance Musk's biography by other sources. "I think it would have killed the company if Elon stayed as CEO for another six months," said Roelof Botha, former finance director of PayPal, in Vance.
The job of a corporate board is to act on behalf of shareholders, and shareholders do not seem to be very happy with Musk right now? Liiiiiiike, Tesla shares started the year on Jan. 2 at $ 320. They closed Thursday at $ 252. In addition to production problems, delivery problems and leadership retention issues, there is the Elon Musk problem. The distraction of the "go private" tweets in August is part of what has allowed Murdoch to position himself as president. the SEC's regulations require Musk to leave the president's seat. And the regulations concern … securities fraud – which should not be a minor problem for investors. (Indeed, many are continuing on this subject.)
The other things – smoking grass and drinking whiskey on the show Joe Rogan, the quarrel Azealia Banks, the case of defamation of a British cave diver – are probably the kind of things that you can ignore. Yeah, it's distracting, but … look, it's Elon Musk. Weird shit is part of the package (remember the McLaren?). But when this strange shit causes the company to pay a $ 20 million fine to settle a securities fraud case, an investigation by the Department of Justice and shareholder lawsuits, that's the sort of thing a council must take seriously. It can be argued that this is the reason the SEC settlement first requires more independent members on the board and a new chairman! This is a strong enough indication that the SEC thinks that the board, as it currently exists, is not powerful enough to act in the interests of shareholders!
James Murdoch is the only member of the council who has enough ruthless bastard to suppress Elon Musk – or to fire him, if necessary. Musk knows it too. If Musk really wants to get ahead of Murdoch, he'd better abandon the Gracias plan and pick a new independent board member to replace him. Because if Murdoch sits on the board, part of his job involves executive succession planning. This is probably not good news for Musk.
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