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therealcmj t1_ity162p wrote

Reply to comment by swords-and-boreds in EXCLUSIVE Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims by ThisIsNotCorn

They don’t have to go bankrupt to go away.

If they get hit with a fine and are forced to refund the money they collected for the supposed self driving feature they could suddenly be in a situation where they have to go take a ton of money in loans at onerous terms to keep operating. If that happens their stock gets driven to a valuation more in line with other automakers EPS. And they suddenly become an acquisition target.

Perhaps for someone with a ton of cash, super valuable stock, and an interest in the automotive space. Like Apple for example.

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m0nk_3y_gw t1_ityewji wrote

Tesla has a ton of cash and a super valuable stock.

Pretty sure they won't even be getting a fine. This article is just a rumor from 3 people, not even anything official from any government agency.

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swords-and-boreds t1_ity1njh wrote

Tesla is not only an automaker. They’re an energy and technology company who make cars. Comparing them to the likes of Ford is a mistake.

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therealcmj t1_ity3l1b wrote

At the end of the day Tesla is public company. It has assets and liabilities and it’s valuation on the stock market is supposed to align with some multiple of its expected future value.

Right now it’s incredibly overvalued when compared to every other company in every business they’re in when compared on an EPS basis. Which means the market (i.e. investors) think there’s some magic there that makes them way more valuable than every other company you could compare them to.

The market is fickle. If they wind up in court and it turns out that they were misleading customers and owe billions of dollars their stock price would crater.

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