Tesla boss Elon Musk will now have to have some of his tweets approved by a company expert. The US Securities and Exchange Commission took him to court over a tweet it said violated an agreement on misleading claims.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday settled on a new agreement that will guide Musk's use of Twitter.
In a Manhattan federal court filing, Musk agreed to have his future communications regarding the electric-car maker approved by a company-employed expert before they are published.
The new agreement, which still needs to be approved by presiding US District Judge Alison Nathan, is more specific and detailed than the previous accord.
It states that Musk may not unilaterally disseminate any information that could affect Tesla shares, including information on finances, production goals, takeovers and mergers.
Agreement 'in interest of all parties'
The SEC said the settlement was "fair, reasonable, and in the interest of the parties and investors because the proposed revisions will provide additional clarity regarding the written communications for which the defendant is required to obtain pre-approval."
It said Musk violated the original deal with a February 19 tweet about Tesla vehicle production that wasn't approved by the company's "disclosure counsel."
The agency contended that Musk hadn't sought the lawyer's approval for a single tweet.
Musk claims violation of First Amendment
Musk's attorneys argued that his tweet — that Tesla would produce about 500,000 vehicles this year — didn't need approval because it was not new information that would be meaningful to investors.
They said the SEC was violating Musk's First Amendment rights to free speech.
The original agreement was made in a settlement reached last September after Musk tweeted that he had secured the funding to take Tesla private at $420 (€375) a share — a significant premium over the company's stock price at the time — when he had not.
That tweet, last August, boosted Tesla's stock and the SEC maintains it hurt investors who bought the stock after the tweet but before they had accurate information.
The SEC said Musk had known the transaction was uncertain and sued him.
The American CEO is perhaps the most iconic creature of the modern business world. Thrusting, eccentric, disruptive captains of finance they may be, but these guys and gals are not always the easiest to get on with.
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Linus Torvalds — foul-mouthed programmer
"Please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place." Emails such as this were common at Linus Torvalds's company, Linux. Torvalds posted thousands of messages targeting programmers at his computer-operating-system kernel, which runs the computers of Google, PayPal and Amazon. Over a thousand of the 21,000 emails he sent in a four-year period used the word "crap."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Lehtikuva/J. Mela
Harvey Weinstein — the monsters' monster
Weinstein's rage was legendary in Hollywood. He reportedly once got a journalist in a headlock. He was described in a "New York Magazine" profile as "unbelievably hard on staff." The once-powerful movie titan has been accused by dozens of women of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape. He has pleaded not guilty to six counts.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/V. Hache
Larry Ellison — a modern-day Genghis Khan
Niccolo Machiavelli wrote "It is better to be feared than loved since people love at their own pleasure, but fear at the pleasure of the prince." Oracle CEO and founder Larry Ellison may have taken this a little too much to heart. Karen Southwick in her 2003 Ellison biography said he is "like a modern-day Genghis Khan who has elevated ruthlessness in business to a carefully cultivated art form."
Image: Getty Images/K. White
Mark Pincus — not all fun and games
"I went out of my way to tell people they were stupid if I thought they were," Mark Pincus said in 2010. Zynga has been described as having a culture where Pincus obsessively tracked analytics for all his staff, set crazy deadlines and pushed his employees to meet them. Analyst Michael Pachter described the ex-CEO as being "driven to the point of a madman."
Image: Getty Images/D. Angerer
Andy Grove — paranoia can annoya
"Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive." This according to Andy Grove. The co-founder of Intel, Grove was said to be aggressive and paranoid. One of his books was in fact entitled "Only the Paranoid Survive." He was named one of America's toughest bosses by "Fortune" in 1984.
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Rupert Murdoch — 'the dirty digger'
Rupert Murdoch has had a long career in being, well, a bit of a jerk. But rude to aristocrats and workmen alike, the Australian-American media tycoon dished out his contempt across the board ... And still does at the age of 87. Some things never change.
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Marissa Mayer — Yahoo's geek goddess
The former CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer was said to be brusque and have adopted a micromanaging style. She is one of the few women in the Rogues Gallery, but her style speaks to a world where male domination is ubiquitous. Mayer's assumption that her employees would be more productive if prohibited from working from home was one of the reasons her early popularity took a nosedive.
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Martha Stewart — butter melting in her mouth
Martha Stewart is reported to be a very intimidating boss and not a big one on giving up control — pushing out two different CEOs, Susan Lyneand and Wenda Millard, within a year. A Merrill Lynch broker's assistant said she was particularly rude when he worked on her case for insider trading.
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Jamie Dimon — a blunt banker
The chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, was involved in every aspect of his bank's business and reportedly interrogated subordinates for hours. A "New York Times" profile describes him as extremely blunt and as a "famously bad listener."
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Elon Musk — give me space, man!
Shares of the electric carmaker Tesla fell sharply after CEO Elon Musk directed abuse on Twitter at one of the British cavers involved in the rescue of 12 Thai children this year. His weed-smoking antics and general eccentricity have added to concerns about his mental well-being.
