Apple, Tesla Fighting Over Top Employees

[FriednTested]

And neither does yours. The point is pretty irrelevant. The OP was on a "mission" to prove that the Tesla is not a recognized brand. And specific to say that outside of the US, no one knew about it.

That's just wrong on many fronts.

I know neither does mine. That's my point. Most places outside the US it is known mainly to auto enthus. Some companies like apple on the other hand are known to lot larger demographic regardless of their geek levels.

I wouldn't say "no one" knows about it. But, the crowd is not a significant one.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I looked some more into this. The iPhone revenue recognition over 8 quarters was required because GAAP rules stipulated that products with free upgrades (like iOS updates) had to be counted as "subscription revenue". This is different from leasing.

For automakers, they typically sell cars direct to a franchised independent dealership (a full sale) and a customer lease goes on the dealerships books as a lease. Tesla leases directly to customers and therefore must defer revenue on leased cars. The effect of this on quarterly GAAP cash flow would be to put all the cost of building and selling a car in the quarter where the car was made, but defer the revenue over several years of the lease. So hypothetically, if the cost of the car to Tesla was 50k, and the total quarterly payments only added up to recognized revenue of 4-5k, it would look pretty bad.

Edit: would really like a CPA to explain, because I do not know GAAP well.

Subsidized iPhone sales are similar to leasing, in that they both dictate the way revenue has to be booked on sales. The GAAP rules changed such that companies now have more flexibility to book revenue at the time of sale and hold back less to account for no-charge upgrades. I know how this affected Apple, but don't know specifically how this affects Tesla. Little question automobile leases would have to be spread out over the term of the lease under the old GAAP rules, but can probably be more compressed towards the time of sale now. Incidentally, Apple used to report non-GAAP earnings along side GAAP earnings before the rules changed, by way of showing what their earnings would be if all revenue was booked in the quarter the product was sold.

So in thinking about this, it seems Tesla in quoting non-GAAP earnings at this point is saying "this is how much we would have earned if we weren't required by the GAAP rules to distribute earnings forward." That is what the GAAP rules require, though, so it's a bit of a toe-dance.

Hope that helps.

 

[viorelgn]

Apple or Tesla? It’s a decision between estrogene and testosterone

 

[nutjob]

Like Jobs, Musk pays a great deal of attention to the details of his products and is a strong, visionary leader.

Unlike jobs Musk doesn't illegally sabotage his engineers careers and depress their wages by making illegal deals with other tech companies.

 

[NT1440]

Unlike jobs Musk doesn't illegally sabotage his engineers careers and depress their wages by making illegal deals with other tech companies.

You know...how? He has been involved in Silicon Valley for almost 20 years and from everything I've seen out of him he can be incredibly arrogant when interacting with things he sees as beneath him. I get where the Jobs comparisons come from. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he's had shady dealings...I don't think anyone earns a billion dollars without ****ing someone over.

 

[Retired Cat]

Apple, Tesla Fighting Over Top Employees

I get where the Jobs comparisons come from. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he's had shady dealings...I don't think anyone earns a billion dollars without ****ing someone over.

See my post above about Martin Eberhard, one of the original founders of Tesla Motors and the brains behind the Tesla Roadster. Most people not familiar with Tesla will ask, "who is that guy Eberhard?" The answer is that he's the guy Elon Musk ousted from Tesla…

I believe that Elon Musk deserves credit for pushing Tesla into becoming a credible car maker. No doubt he's a brilliant, hard working fellow. But yes, I do think he probably f'd Martin and others over. Whether this was necessary or not I do not know.

 

[nutjob]

You know...how? He has been involved in Silicon Valley for almost 20 years and from everything I've seen out of him he can be incredibly arrogant when interacting with things he sees as beneath him. I get where the Jobs comparisons come from. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he's had shady dealings...I don't think anyone earns a billion dollars without ****ing someone over.

Because it's a matter of record. He wrote it in emails. It's been corroborated. Apple is paying hundreds of millions in penalties to said engineers. Have you been living under a rock for the last year? Did you just come out of a coma this morning?

Seriously, LOL!

Also lots of people have made much more than a billion dollars without doing anything remotely shady. Get a grip.

 

[NT1440]

Because it's a matter of record. He wrote it in emails. It's been corroborated. Apple is paying hundreds of millions in penalties to said engineers. Have you been living under a rock for the last year? Did you just come out of a coma this morning?

Seriously, LOL!

Also lots of people have made much more than a billion dollars without doing anything remotely shady. Get a grip.

I'm clearly talking about Musk....