Twitter is the perfect place for communicating directly with investors. Anyone can follow anyone else on Twitter for free and get immediate notifications. The financial media monitor it and within minutes stories appear about developments announced there.
The traditional way is for corporate leaders to invite in selected analysts who follow the stock and give them off the record information that somehow leaks through the so-called "Chinese wall" to the investment advisers at the analysts' firms. After a few days, financial journalists report "rumors" to explain the runup.
Elon Musk was not representing Tesla at the time of the tweet. Instead he was acting as an investor with a plan to take over the company and before the day was out his email to the Tesla employees had provided a great deal of further information which the media mostly ignored. Most investors with Tesla stock are going to opt for the offer of equity in the private company, so the amount of outside money that needs to be raised in not all that much. This is especially true because more than 20% of Tesla shares were "owned" on June 30 by two investors, either one of whom or both can accept the offer of continued ownership. Musk wrote yesterday "My best estimate right now is that approximately two-thirds of shares owned by all current investors would roll over into a private Tesla." Folks that want in on private Tesla may bid the price up well above $420 and in the end no one will accept $420.
The real problem is that a company head who'd call anyone else a "pedo guy" without evidence shouldn't be heading the company. Musk must be replaced with someone sane.
Wondering whether systematically-bigoted Twitter is a legal or wise place to say anything, let alone market-swaying statements about a business, is peanuts by comparison.
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Isn't this exactly what Trump is doing when his tweets disparage Harley-Davidson, or Pfizer? Didn't it affect their stocks? How about when he tweeted economic numbers before the official release day. This use of Twitter is a blatant attempt to move markets. You don't need the office of the presidency to have a bully pulpit. All you need is Twitter.
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Too bad there isn't an app to delay twitter messages by 48 hours with the chance to delete them before they go public. Many normally thoughtful people would be saved from embarrassing moments. You cannot unring a bell you have already rung.
Require market-moving tweets to include a link to a complete statement?
Well it's all proving that the $billionaires will not be saving us.
We will just have to save ourselves.
When the President of the United States has no Twitter filter whatsoever and stays in the new constantly I think we can we expect corporate executives to follow suit.
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I am a senior citizen and do not Twit. It does not seem fair that a market moving announcement be make to one segment of the populace only. The market moves very fast and to simply leave so many behind feels like we were left out of insider information. At least have the information put on the various business wires simultaneously by regulation.
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“Is Twitter the right forum for public company executives to disseminate market-moving information in the first place?”
Nope. And Elon Musk is obviously proficient enough at basic manipulation for all of the noise that he makes on Twitter to potentially have dangerous effects on whatever it is that he happens to be spouting on about at any given moment.
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