Tesla’s Elon Musk fired off the latest volley in his long-running feud with Greenlight Capital’s founder David Einhorn via Twitter on Friday.
Days after swearing he would take a break from the micro-blogging site, Musk blasted out a response by tweet to a note on blogging site ZeroHedge, which purported to sum up a critical October 30 investor letter from hedge-fund manager Einhorn. The letter was confirmed as coming from Einhorn by representatives from Greenlight Capital.
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Addressing Einhorn as “Mr. Unicorn,” — the German translation of that name — Musk responded that the hedge-fund manager had made “numerous false allegations,” without getting specific but he also said he sympathized with Einhorn’s situation.
Tesla’s TSLA, -0.02% share price has risen since the company surprised Wall Street with a quarterly profit last month. Some short sellers have been trimming those positions since June as a result.
Shares of Tesla are up just 0.8% year to date, but rebounded 39% for the quarter so far. Einhorn’s Greenlight fund declined 4.9% in August, leaving it with a year-to-date return of 15.2%, after a 34% plunge in 2018, which marked its worst year on record, according to Bloomberg.
Musk offered to host a visit by Einhorn to Tesla facilities, saying investors would probably appreciate him “getting smart” on the company.
The Tesla chief also said he would be sending Einhorn “a small gift of short shorts to help you through this difficult time.” The Greenlight manager must have a drawer full somewhere, given that Musk apparently sent him a load of shorts in August 2018 too.
Musk did not respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.
But Einhorn later tweeted a letter to Musk asking for specifics on the “false allegations.” The hedge-fund manager further said he would welcome the opportunity to learn more about Tesla and would take up Musk’s invitation for a visit, adding that previous requests to Tesla’s Investor Relations team had been rebuffed.
“The truth is we are much more interested in, and have many questions about, your financial statements,” he wrote. “Perhaps, we could spend time together with your CFO, Zach Kirkshorn.”
He continued to question Tesla’s receivable balances which remain high, adding, “We have dozens of questions like that.”
The full letter, which has been verified by MarketWatch as coming from Einhorn, can be viewed here:
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