How Does Bloomberg's Cory Johnson get Away with Being so Anti-Tesla?

[The Blue Owl]

this not a political forum. don't need to hear your distortions.

Feel free to avoid the thread, then. In the meantime, the rest of us will bring up any point of view that is related to the thread. It so happens that Johan's comment has quite a bit to do with why poor journalism is thriving. In my distorted opinion, your honour.

 

[omarsultan]

Back to the OP's question, simple Bloomberg's business is to sell page views to advertisers. Controversy generates clicks, especially with a company like TSLA, but as bad as Telsa has it, APPL probably has it worse, there is an entire industry built up around Apple-bashing and predicting its imminent demise.

 

[Drax7]

So what's your explanation for CJ's ignorant comments and the fact that he's able to remain a CNBC commentator for years despite his ignorance?

CJ ex partner of jim Cramer, that too denigrates tesla, and they are both democrats.
CNBC is considered left leaning sympathizers, as quite visible in their debate performance.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

Back to the OP's question, simple Bloomberg's business is to sell page views to advertisers. Controversy generates clicks, especially with a company like TSLA, but as bad as Telsa has it, APPL probably has it worse, there is an entire industry built up around Apple-bashing and predicting its imminent demise.

The Rose Gold iPhone is PINK. Apple is doomed.

 

[Johan]

CJ ex partner of jim Cramer, that too denigrates tesla, and they are both democrats.
CNBC is considered left leaning sympathizers, as quite visible in their debate performance.

So then it must be my other option: they have no real mission to offer proper news or analysis, but rather only to fill the time between commercials with what is known today in the media industry as "content".

 

[Drax7]

So then it must be my other option: they have no real mission to offer proper news or analysis, but rather only to fill the time between commercials with what is known today in the media industry as "content".

that we can agree on, i have never ever made money listening to CNBC, and i manage money professionally for
decades.

 

[Krugerrand]

Where did I write TSLA will go bankrupt in two quarters?

Not everything has to be written to be 'said'. Indeed, you implied bankruptcy in your very next sentence: "They won't (go bankrupt) as long as Wall Street provides them with new money (either more dilution or more debt, I doubt it's much of the latter going forward since they already securitized assets in mid-2015)."

Tesla will need a lot of fresh money in 2016 imho to keep burning cash (or "investing heavily in the future", if you prefer a bullish term).

This is not a revelation or prediction specific to you or your crystal ball - just sayin'. Tesla has already left the door open for future cash raises. Tesla has already left the door open for even more expansion of their businesses. And because Tesla is a fast moving target, what is said and planned for today can change and be quite different tomorrow. This movement will give you (specifically) enough material to go down your current path for a long time coming - the foreseeable future.

As soon as the heavy Model X cap-ex rounds are over, a lot of Model 3 R&D and then tooling will kick in by 2016-2018.

We already know that Model 3 R&D should be significantly less than S and the super complicated X. The hard work has been done and there's nothing new or outlandish expected for Model 3. It's also reasonable to expect Model 3 tooling to be significantly less than Model X (or S) based on the inexpensive (I don't know how the guy does it, but he does) acquisition of Riviera Tool. According to the ER call that only cost them $10M, which was less than just the expediting expense of the X tooling. Take note.

There is no free lunch in the car industry, it's constant heavy cap-ex, especially if TSLA wants to keep growing in the double digits.

It sure is and yet Tesla just keeps defying the odds and plowing ahead at an ever rapid pace. That's obviously giving some people indigestion. The foundation being laid is difficult for them to comprehend and fathom, but it makes it no less real.

It's not about one quarter. It's about many quarters in 2014 and 2015.

2014 is long past, and only one quarter remains in 2015. Personally, I'm looking forward and can hardly wait to see what they come up with next. Tesla is the best page turning book I've read in a long time.

 

[electracity]

Most of what Cory Johnson does is point out how Tesla doesn't meet their goals. What an ignorant jerk.

 

[The Blue Owl]

Most of what Cory Johnson does is point out how Tesla doesn't meet their goals. What an ignorant jerk.

Your sarcasm made me chuckle, but I actually agree with your statement at face value. If he spent some time pointing out what Tesla does right in addition to what they do wrong, maybe you would have a point, but there is no balance whatsoever in his coverage. He also seems to have a problem with Elon Musk personally, given all the sneers at Musk's expense that he is fond of mixing in his commentary.

 

[mdevp]

That is why the likes of TFTF, Anton W, LT, Cory J and others bears are now a laughing stock.

Nothing wrong in pointing out the stock is overvalued - and I think it is. But the reasons you guys are repeating over and over again just doesn't cut it

Not that they are ignorant, just being disingenuous and hoping you will pull some longs alone with you.

The Overvaluation argument is suspect too, I feel. Don't the Bear shorts take any reposiblity for their role in the "overvalued" stock price? What would TSLA's price really be if ALL shorts covered and we waited a few months with no shorting allowed? Bears have a huge role in Tesla being "overvalued".
(Side note, are there any computer prediction models that could hypothesize a stock price if their were no shorts? Just asking.)

 

[mdevp]

Most of what Cory Johnson does is point out how Tesla doesn't meet their goals. What an ignorant jerk.

Not really, look up his other interviews. Tesla never said they would be profitable in the short term yet Cory always brings up they are "losing money on every car sold"; always inferring Tesla's build cost is way more than the car price. He never explains that each car is profitable and Tesla spends everything on infrastructure and growth. He's made so many comments that Tesla's are toys, aren't very fast, for rich people only, the AP doesn't work etc. I mean check his Twitter history, everything negative.

 

[30seconds]

The worst (besides the massive and willful ignorance) part of CJ is that he is Bloomberg's Tech Leader. So while he is blabbering on about loss per car sold or other worthless and cherry picked statistics he is, at the same time, ignoring similar calculations across the tech industry. I don't remember him talking about Uber's "loss per ride" or Amazon's unsustainable business model or how Netfix will be taken out by the cable companies or how every other company that can make a smartphone will outcompete Apple

so. Much. Fail.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

I'd wager he has a hedge fund friend who's been short TSLA the wrong side of $30 since 2012.

 

[McMuggets]

I remember when autopilot came out and he asked someone "what do you think about teslas autopilot essentially taking some people where they don't want to go?"... Implying that autopilot was driving people into danger. That was the first question on the topic, negative right away.

 

[Gerasimental]

Check page 3 of the follow shareholder letter for Q3 2015:

http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...E16-DE1FAC0BABDF/Q3_15_Shareholder_Letter.pdf


Here you will read that warranty reserves are in line with their estimates and they are doing fine with that. As well their service revenue increased to $84M and margins increased to 9%. Basically, warranty and service are a non-issue. Notably, they are selling more of their pre-owned cars than they are adding... thus they have 17% less pre-owned cars to sell now since demand has been so high.

What, apart from CPO sales is included in 'services and other revenue'?
Is it Service Center activity, i.e. fixing cars? If so, interesting that it has stayed flat YoY (62% increase in S&O revenue entirely from CPO sales) despite the fleet of cars on the road almost doubling.

 

[Drax7]

I'd wager he has a hedge fund friend who's been short TSLA the wrong side of $30 since 2012.

Right on , Cramer and Cory Johnson started the street.com.
He is aiding a short, and in return potentially getting paid for it .

i will notify Bloomberg on Facebook to look into it.

 

[McMuggets]

What, apart from CPO sales is included in 'services and other revenue'?
Is it Service Center activity, i.e. fixing cars? If so, interesting that it has stayed flat YoY (62% increase in S&O revenue entirely from CPO sales) despite the fleet of cars on the road almost doubling.

I think so. If you follow this forum where the owners chat a lot, you will see that most of the servicing and problems are occurring with the older model 2013's. I say most not all.... in case some jump on me. It may prove that in 2017 we will see problems with 2015 model S's, I have no idea on that. But it stands to reason that TSLA is constantly making tweaks and improvements to the Model S, as Elon has stated before. TSLA is a company that doesn't function like traditional car manufacturers, they can change things when needed on the fly. In some cases a car coming off the line last week is different from one this week. That's the beauty and speed of this company that Cory Johnson, Bob Lutz, and many other fogey traditionalists/nostalgists don't understand.

 

[Gerasimental]

I think so. If you follow this forum where the owners chat a lot, you will see that most of the servicing and problems are occurring with the older model 2013's. I say most not all.... in case some jump on me. It may prove that in 2017 we will see problems with 2015 model S's, I have no idea on that. But it stands to reason that TSLA is constantly making tweaks and improvements to the Model S, as Elon has stated before. TSLA is a company that doesn't function like traditional car manufacturers, they can change things when needed on the fly. In some cases a car coming off the line last week is different from one this week. That's the beauty and speed of this company that Cory Johnson, Bob Lutz, and many other fogey traditionalists/nostalgists don't understand.

Thanks, that was what I was getting at. I already was of this opinion but that is a good, hard data point. But of course this is TSLA so everyone has already long long forgotten about CR and reliability.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Right on , Cramer and Cory Johnson started the street.com.
He is aiding a short, and in return potentially getting paid for it .

i will notify Bloomberg on Facebook to look into it.

Ah, interesting. Didn't know Cory had a connection to thestreet.com. Cramer's negative conflict of interest on TSLA comes from his buddy Doug Kass, another thestreet.com contributor and frequent TSLA short.

 

[mdevp]

Here he is a year ago on some Bloomberg audio interview. Some highlights: Musk's companies has never made any money, ALL of his companies are "spinning plates", basically shams being propped up by Elon's hype and accusations of possible accounting fraud. He even says stories on Musk are the "dumbest and most ridiculous" of 2014. This is borderline libelous IMO. The audio at the very least proves he should not ever be commenting on Tesla on Bloomberg. What's particularly insidious is Cory obviously hides his true feelings for TV to give the appearance of merely being critical, but not overtly biased.

Cory starts @5:25.
http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/vqS57RNsJHlw.mp3