CIO Scott Martin on Fox News 8.10.2022 – Cavuto Coast to Coast, Pt. 2
Economy, Fox News, gas prices, Kingsview Investment Management, Kingsview Partners, Neil Cavuto, Scott Martin
Kingsview CIO Scott Martin discusses Elon Musk’s selling of Tesla, the likelihood of his purchasing Twitter, and whether that may turn into a court battle.
Program: Cavuto Coast to Coast
Date: 8/10/2022
Station: Fox Business News
Time: 12:00PM
JACKIE DEANGELIS: Welcome back. Elon Musk getting his finances in order, selling nearly $7 Billion worth of Tesla shares. Back with our market panel. Scott Martin, Luke Lloyd, Scott, we’ll start again with you. When it comes to Elon Musk and Twitter, the saga never ends. So now he’s selling this huge stake in Tesla and some people are saying, well, that’s because he knows he’s going to have to buy Twitter eventually. Court’s going to make him do it. Is that what you think this is about?
SCOTT MARTIN: He may have to, Jackie. And I’ll tell you, the stocks had a nice rally, too, by the way, in the last couple of months. So maybe he’s taken some profits off the table as well. But he’s about halfway or about a quarter of the way there. As far as what he’s committed to personally, about 33 billion of that share by buyout. So look, I think regarding his moves, I think he’s kind of gotten what he wanted out of Twitter, shook him up pretty good, scared some people, obviously created some internal fighting there. So so far, if he’s going to sell a few more shares of Tesla as it’s rallying here, it’s probably not that big of a deal to him.
DEANGELIS: So I agree with you. And that’s the perfect setup for my next question to Luke, because as I’m looking at this standing back, I think, you know, Elon Musk is is smart like a fox. I think that he doesn’t want Twitter anymore. Mission accomplished in that he ignited this conversation about the bots and about what’s happening on Twitter, exposing the company, demanding some accountability. I don’t think he even is looking necessarily for discount at this point, but it’s a great cover because he has sold so much stock. And it’s not just this last tranche that he did, but in in preparation for this deal. Luke, you know, when CEOs sell stock in their company, usually investors worry that they’re losing confidence, even if it’s just for profit taking purposes. It’s really hard for them to do it. This is a great cover for him to do that and not have to explain.
LUKE LLYOD: So Elon Musk is absolutely smart as a fox, like you mentioned. And another thing is, I know Elon Musk is all about having like, you know, ten, 20, 30 children and he’s been very prominent about that. You’ve got to remember, Tesla in all of these companies that he’s building are basically one of his children. Right. He built it from the ground up. These are these are his babies that he’s he’s put all his time and effort into. And the thing is, I think he’s starting to get away from Tesla. You know, I think he’s trying to focus on other ventures like Twitter, maybe SpaceX, maybe Neuralink, all these other companies. I think Twitter actually is is a means to a is a is a means to an end and another opportunity down the road. All the data that Twitter has, I think he’s thinking ten steps ahead. And one of the things I mentioned earlier about the government, the government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Look at past World War One and World War Two. Government spending was 10% of GDP after World War One and 10% after World War Two. Now it’s up to 30% of GDP with the economy being 100 times bigger than it was in 1946. Imagine if he gave 20% back to the American citizens for entrepreneurs like Elon Musk to create jobs and innovate. Elon Musk knows how to create jobs. Innovate. That’s what he’s down to do.
DEANGELIS: He does. And I think you’re right. And I think SpaceX and Tesla, these are his babies, Scott. You know, Twitter could be one of them. But you have to wonder why he would be making this bet with Twitter when I think the future is still ahead of Tesla. Right. Especially as you see this administration pushing forward all of its green energy agenda. Electric vehicles are a large part of that. And so some would say even though this is his baby, it still has it still has room to grow. Might be something that he wants to watch. And we’re just speculating here on what his motives are with respect to this, because it’s really, really tough the way this is unfolded to understand what he’s thinking. But it’s sort of like getting into the mind of a mad man.
MARTIN: Yeah, I mean, 100%. I think Tesla’s got a great future ahead of it. And Twitter kind of became a pretty big distraction there for a while. Jackie Maybe it was the data that he wanted. Maybe he just want to shake up the company a little bit and then walk away, which obviously is proven to be more difficult than than he probably thought. But look, I mean, Tesla is obviously, you know, the leader in the industry. It has its reputation very well built. So Tesla to some degree can carry that on, maybe not so much without him, but at least without his focus on the company. But going forward, if you look at what’s going to
happen with Twitter, this is going to be a really fun court battle and something that I think is probably going to go against him in the end and therefore he’s going to have to pony up.
DEANGELIS: It really is. And I said there is an appetite for a really good court battle for us news hounds, because after the Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial, I mean, that was just explosive. So some people are saying maybe this will be the business version of that. We shall see. Gentlemen, we are going to leave it there. Scott Luke, great to see you. Thank you.
