MUSKY TWEETS: INFORMATION TRANSFER IN THE AGE OF UNBRIDLED SOCIAL MEDIA

• Published in: Journal of business strategies 2019-09, Vol.36 (2), p.49-61
• Main Authors: Duan, Xiaoman, Stretcher, Robert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bankruptcy; Celebrities; Communication; Corporate debt; Corporate objectives; Credit ratings; Electric vehicles; Executives; Funding; Investments; Investors; Jokes; Musk, Elon; Publicly held corporations; Rating services; Regulation of financial institutions; Securities markets; Social media; Social networks; Stock exchanges; Stock markets; Stock prices
• ISSN: 0887-2058; 2162-6901

[...]Twitter strategies have even been suggested for executives wishing to use the platform to bring about predictable public response that is likely to positively affect a corporate objective (Malhotra and Malhotra 2016). According to Moody's, the downgrade reflected a "significant short fall" in the production of the company's model 3 electric car, and a tight liquidity position in which the company would have to raise a large amount of capital to meet its liquidity needs and pay off its maturing debts.5 In addition, on March 29th, Tesla issued a recall of 123,000 model S electric cars around the world because of the defect with the power steering component. The recall was the largest recall ever for Tesla, and the massive number of recalled car represented almost half of all the cars that the company had built as of that date.6 To add to the company's problems, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was conducting an investigation into a fatal Tesla Model X accident in Mountain View, California in March. On the day Musk posted his bankruptcy joke, Tesla's stock price was down over 7 percent, indicating investors' high level of anxiety about the company's prospects.7 Aug 7, 2018 Musk dropped a bombshell into the internet community and to the financial markets when he announced his intention to take Tesla private on twitter.