Photo: Wikipedia user Maurizio Pesce from Milan, Italia
A Tweet from Elon Musk goes a long way, and his words have become 140-character press releases from Tesla’s CEO.
A powerful Tweet can also mean disaster. Particularly true if you represent a company that enjoyed a rise in stock market value after rumors and reports mentioned Tesla as a potential client, and shares go down after Musk denies the claim. This exact scenario happened with Samsung SDI’s market capitalization.
This is a company that works with Samsung involving batteries and displays, being a supplier for numerous OEMs from various industries.
Samsung SDI was rumored to be a potential partner for the Tesla Model 3’s batteries. Its share value decreased by eight percent, which means a loss of approximately $580 million.
This decrease is frightening, and only goes to show how fragile the stock market can be. Let’s look at it this way - a company from South Korea that builds batteries and displays was seen as a potential partner for Tesla.
They refrained from comments on the matter, and so did Tesla Motors. The value of that company artificially grew because of its potential link with the American automaker, and then it lost money because Elon Musk tweeted a clarification for all to see, without any comment on the South Korean company.
The worst part of these rumors? Tesla is already working with Samsung for its range of Energy products, including the Powerwall. Meanwhile, its cars will only use Panasonic batteries for years to come, in spite of analysts that expected Tesla to source its batteries for the Model 3 elsewhere.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, this is not the first time when stocks plunge after a Twitter post. Back in 2013, the Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked, and the new operator tweeted a false news about Barack Obama being assassinated. Fortunately, the current President of the United States of America was unharmed, as the tweet was a false report, but that did not stop the drop of several prominent figures on the stock market.
This is a company that works with Samsung involving batteries and displays, being a supplier for numerous OEMs from various industries.
Samsung SDI was rumored to be a potential partner for the Tesla Model 3’s batteries. Its share value decreased by eight percent, which means a loss of approximately $580 million.
This decrease is frightening, and only goes to show how fragile the stock market can be. Let’s look at it this way - a company from South Korea that builds batteries and displays was seen as a potential partner for Tesla.
They refrained from comments on the matter, and so did Tesla Motors. The value of that company artificially grew because of its potential link with the American automaker, and then it lost money because Elon Musk tweeted a clarification for all to see, without any comment on the South Korean company.
The worst part of these rumors? Tesla is already working with Samsung for its range of Energy products, including the Powerwall. Meanwhile, its cars will only use Panasonic batteries for years to come, in spite of analysts that expected Tesla to source its batteries for the Model 3 elsewhere.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, this is not the first time when stocks plunge after a Twitter post. Back in 2013, the Twitter account of the Associated Press was hacked, and the new operator tweeted a false news about Barack Obama being assassinated. Fortunately, the current President of the United States of America was unharmed, as the tweet was a false report, but that did not stop the drop of several prominent figures on the stock market.
Would like to clarify that Tesla is working exclusively with Panasonic for Model 3 cells. News articles claiming otherwise are incorrect.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 8, 2016
Google News