If you’re a Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock bear, then the sun’s a little warmer today. Your coffee’s a little sweeter. Bees are buzzing, butterflies are flitting — and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is focused on profits once again. That’s always good for Tesla shareholders.
I admit I was little nervous when Musk announced he took a major share in Twitter (NYSE:TWTR). Musk now owns more than 9% of the social media company, and is its biggest single shareholder.
And for a long, dark weekend, Musk appeared set to join the Twitter board of directors. That was until the company announced on Monday morning that Musk won’t be joining after all.
“I believe this is for the best,” CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet. “We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”
Why does that matter? I think it’s incredibly hard for someone even as accomplished as Musk to divide his attention and do it well. He’s already overburdened with running Tesla (it’s a trillion-dollar company now) and his fledging SpaceX company. Taking a hands-on role at Twitter seemed like an awful idea – and having to serve as a fiduciary at both Twitter and Tesla would have been next to impossible, in my mind.
He has already run into issues just by dabbling in Twitter. A lawsuit filed this week accuses Musk of delaying his disclosure of his TWTR stock stake, saving himself $150 million and keeping shareholders from profiting from the resulting spike in Twitter stock.
Of course, there’s speculation out there that Musk will eventually end up running Twitter, or that he’ll increase his ownership stake. I hope that doesn’t happen.
Tesla investors don’t want it to happen either, it would seem. It’s not a coincidence that TSLA stock fell more than 10% after Musk announced his stake in Twitter on April 4. Or that its share price began bouncing back right after Twitter disclosed Musk would not be part of the company’s board after all.
So for now, things are right in the world of Tesla stock. The company is taking orders for the Tesla Roadster, to be delivered starting next year. It just opened its Austin, Texas, Gigafactory, just weeks after launching the long-awaited Berlin Gigafactory. And Tesla is gearing up for another stock split, just two years after its last one.
There’s money to be made in Tesla stock. Musk just needs to keep his eye on the ball.
On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders was long TSLA. He did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
