Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton gave notice Tuesday that he was resigning less than a month into the job, according to a Friday filing.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s stock plunged, then extended declines after Gabrielle Toledano, the head of human resources who\u2019s been on a leave of absence, told Bloomberg News that she won\u2019t rejoin the company.<\/p>\n
Morton, a former chief financial officer for computer-drive maker Seagate Technology Plc, joined Tesla one day before Musk tweeted that he was considering buying out some investors at $420 a share and taking the company private.<\/p>\n
The CEO abandoned that effort 17 days later, and in the process drew a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a series of lawsuits alleging market manipulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations,\u201d Morton said in the filing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla\u2019s leadership or its financial reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tesla shares fell as much as 10 percent, the steepest intraday drop since June 2016, and were down 4.9% to $267.28 as of 11:10 a.m. in New York.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s 5.3% bonds declined as much as 4 cents to 81.75 cents on the dollar, a new low, according to Trace bond price data.<\/p>\n
Tesla has long struggled with high turnover among its senior executive ranks, and its finance team in particular has gone through significant tumult lately.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter of this year, the company lost Morton\u2019s predecessor, Eric Branderiz, and Susan Repo, who was treasurer and vice president of finance.<\/p>\n
CFO Deepak Ahuja retired in 2015, only to return in 2017 after his successor, Jason Wheeler, quit after just 15 months.<\/p>\n
By leaving the accounting chief job, Morton walked away from a $10 million new-hire equity grant that would have vested over four years. Friday was also slated to be the last day for Sarah O\u2019Brien, Tesla\u2019s vice president of communications, whose departure was announced last month.<\/p>\n
Up in Smoke<\/h3>\n
Musk, 47, sipped whiskey during a more than 2 1\/2-hour podcast with comedian Joe Rogan late Thursday that touched on everything from flame throwers and artificial intelligence to the end of the universe.<\/p>\n
While he said he was \u201cnot a regular smoker of weed,\u201d he took a drag from what Rogan described as a joint containing tobacco mixed with marijuana, which is legal in California.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite hard to run companies. Especially car companies,\u201d Musk said. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to keep a car company alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philippe Houchois, an analyst at Jefferies Group LLC with a hold rating on Tesla shares, said that Musk \u201cseems to be on a slightly self-destructive bent.\u201d In an interview with Bloomberg Television, he called for the company to split up the chairman and CEO jobs – Musk has served both roles since October 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team, the skill set that have been phenomenal to create Tesla are not the ones we need for the next stage,\u201d said Houchois, who has a $360 price target on the stock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a skill set that needs to be added at the top that Mr. Musk doesn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s board of directors is on the lookout for senior talent but is not actively searching for a chief operating officer, a person familiar with the board\u2019s thinking told Bloomberg News in August.<\/p>\n
Morton and Toledano\u2019s departures — and Musk\u2019s performance on the podcast — also alarmed James Albertine, who rates Tesla a hold with a $300 target.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidence is becoming more clear that Tesla needs to entertain a major change in the C-suite,\u201d Albertine wrote in a report. \u201cThe ongoing, effectively self-inflicted public relations crisis is now affecting key personnel within the organization\u201d and distracting the market from fundamentals that have been improving, he said.<\/p>\n
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