Mercurial Musk keeps changing his mind

Elon Musk is testing investors’ patience.

Soon after his $44 billion Twitter bid was accepted, Musk said the deal was “on hold”, complaining about the number of bots on the site — something that should have been dealt with before the deal was signed, not after. It gave the impression Musk is, as the Guardian’s Nils Pratley noted last week, a “monumental time-waster.”

More recently, Tesla shareholders were frustrated by Musk’s contradictory stance on staffing issues. First, Reuters reported he wanted to cut 10 per cent of Tesla’s workforce, saying in an email he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy. Unsurprisingly, Tesla shares plunged.

Soon after, Musk said the cuts would only apply to salaried positions. A day later, he said Tesla’s total headcount would increase and the number of salaried staff would be “fairly flat”. Hours later, Musk said a story that reported a 10 per cent cut of salaried employees was “accurate”.

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So, Tesla went from letting go a tenth of its workforce, to cutting 10 per cent of salaried workers, to increasing its total headcount and keeping salaried employees “fairly flat”, to possibly cutting salaried workers after all. Musk’s words and actions have consequences — for Tesla’s 100,000 employees and for investors, whether Tesla’s or Twitter’s.