Investor Calling To Reign In Elon Musk Reiterates Plans To Run For Tesla Board

Long-time Tesla supporter, investor, and financial advisor, Ross Gerbe, who began a bid to be included in Tesla's Board of Directors back in December when Tesla's stock price was at its lowest says, he hasn't changed his mind. Gerber mentions problems with Tesla’s public relations, customer service, and succession plan as the main issues he would like to improve.

Since Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter on April 14 for $43 billion, Tesla shares have gone down more than 70%. This means in less than a year, more than $700 billion has been wiped off Tesla’s $1 trillion market cap.

Yes, in the meantime all growth stocks have experienced a huge sell-off and in the past 30 days, Tesla stock has seen a miraculous turnaround and has clawed back $300 billion worth of its market cap.

However, although happy with Tesla’s stock performance of late, a lot of Tesla investors still blame Musk’s Twitter deal for Tesla’s incredible 70% decline.

And the most vocal of Tesla investors who shared this sentiment on Twitter is long-time Tesla supporter, investor, and financial advisor, Ross Gerber. Gerber back in December at the lows of Tesla’s stock price, wrote on Twitter “Elon has now erased $600 billion of Tesla wealth and still nothing from the Tesla BOD [Board of Directors]. It’s wholly unacceptable.”

What’s interesting here is not the fact that Gerber was unhappy with Musk’s engagement at Twitter, this sentiment has been echoed by a large swath of the Tesla investor base since Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter. But, what is different about Gerber’s statement is that this is the first time a prominent and long-time Tesla investor had called on the EV maker’s Board of Directors to take action against Musk.

Musk in an attempt to quell the anger responded to Gerber by writing “Tesla is executing better than ever!” The CEO then went on to blame the decline in Tesla’s share price on macroeconomic conditions saying “we don’t control the Federal Reserve. That is the real problem here.”

Despite Musk’s reassurance, the Tesla CEO at the time still faced pushback from a Twitter user who wrote “the real problem is shareholders are concerned that Twitter is consuming too much of your time. It’s a valid concern” which prompted Musk to reply “I literally just finished my meeting going over Giga Texas production progress.”

It was good to hear Musk’s reassurance that he is still committed to running Tesla. However, Musk’s statements seemed to have done little to sway the Tesla investor base as Ross Gerber has started a campaign to join Tesla’s Board of Directors in an attempt to presumably reign in Musk’s engagement at Twitter or find a new CEO.

Fast forward two months. Tesla shares have increased by almost 100% percent since December lows. The EV maker has also posted another record production and delivery quarter, Tesla has also guided to grow vehicle delivery by 50% this year, and the EV maker is only weeks away from sharing its next-generation vehicle platform and how it plans significantly expand production.

All these added together have shifted the sentiment towards Tesla and Musk back to being positive. However, in a new interview he gave to Reuters, Ross Gerber has reiterated his plans to run for Tesla’s Board of Directors.

However, this time Gerber has softened his reason for running to be part of Tesla’s Board and mentions problems with Tesla’s public relations, customer service, and succession plan as the main issues he would like to improve.

In a phone interview he gave to Reuters Gerber said “Tesla has let Elon be the voice of Tesla forever. Tesla doesn’t do any organized marketing, any outreach with the media, or any lobbying and it's led to a tremendous amount of FUD," or fear, uncertainty, and doubt.”

Adding “instead of me spending a day doing 14 interviews with reporters around the world, Tesla should have someone doing that. And if I'm going to do that, I should be a representative of the company,”

Currently, it’s hard to say what proportion of the Tesla investor base agrees with Gerber’s sentiment. However, we will be sure to keep you posted as the situation unfolds. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest news.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla

For more information check out: Elon Musk Lets Out His Frustration After Tesla Is Once Again Forced To Stop Construction At Giga Berlin

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.