马斯克一句道歉，特斯拉市值回升50亿

要说“千面人”埃隆·马斯克的哪一张面具让他发了财，那么他擅于道歉的一面不得不提。

上周三的季度收益电话会议过后，特斯拉的股价猛涨了13个百分点。究其原因，恐怕与马斯克在会上的三次道歉不无关系。他还亲自向上次电话会议中被他猛烈批判的两名华尔街分析师专门道歉。在5月的那次会议上，马斯克称他们问的都是“无聊的蠢问题”，干脆剥夺了这些分析师的提问权，拒绝做任何回应。那次会后，特斯拉的股价下跌了5.5个百分点，之后几周的累计损失更是超过了9%。

在上周三的这次电话会议上，马斯克表示要为自己的行为负责。他对伯恩斯坦公司的分析师托尼·萨克纳西说：“我想为上次会议的不礼貌举止道歉。” 然后允许萨克纳西第一个提问。“老实说，对于我的不当举止，不应找任何借口，而且在这方面我也违反了自己的原则。”

马斯克继续解释道：“我当时脾气暴躁是有原因的，因为我已经很久没睡觉了，差不多每周要工作110甚至120个小时。”（相当于每天工作17个小时，每周7天。）“但这些都不是借口，我还是要为上次会议的不当言行道歉。”

对另一名上次遭到批判的RBC资本市场公司的分析师约瑟夫·斯派克，马斯克表示：“那是不对的，我希望你接受我的道歉。”

投资者们显然接受了马斯克的道歉——尽管实际上，今年第二季度特斯拉的亏损达到了创纪录的水平，甚至超出了华尔街的预期。但这次马斯克关闭了“暴走模式”，没有再抱怨分析师们的问题是要“弄死他”。睡足了的马斯克开启了“贤者模式”，平心静气地回答了摩根士丹利分析师亚当·乔纳斯的两个没有什么实际意义的问题——“你认为自动驾驶汽车是否最终会发展成一种武器级的技术？”（“不会的，它只是能自动驾驶的汽车而已。”）“亚马逊和宝马谁对你的竞争威胁更大？”（“都不是，如果亚马逊进入汽车业务，我倒是会挺震惊的。”）

在发布季报后，特斯拉的股价出现了小幅上涨。但真正让公司股价开始飙升的，是马斯克之后的发言，它使得特斯拉的市值在盘后交易中猛涨50亿美元以上。

鉴于马斯克恢复了贤者模式，你仿佛能听到参会的分析师们长舒了一口气。虽然特斯拉的股价今年6月初有所回升，但在过去一个半月里又暴跌了21%。在此次会议前，马斯克还发过几条莫名其妙的推文，发表了一系列有攻击性的言论，很多人不禁担心他还适不适合领导特斯拉。7月中旬，马斯克曾称一名泰国的营救潜水员是“恋童癖”。受此言连累，特斯拉股价又跌了4%（当然了，为了安抚股民，特斯拉后来也道了歉）。

媒体记者向来是马斯克的出气筒，然而在这次会议上，马斯克竟然少见地接受了媒体的报道（提问的记者分别来自《华尔街日报》和《清洁科技》），甚至感谢他们做出的“深度报道”。

乔纳斯在问答环节中发表感言道：“在这些会议上，马斯克展示了对我的同事们和华尔街分析师的爱与尊重。我还能说什么呢？”

在这次会议上，马斯克展示了慎重、诚实、有说服力的一面。他提醒道，虽然特斯拉的现金还没花完（他表示在可预见的未来，特斯拉已不需要进行更多融资），但也并不意味着特斯拉“特别有钱”。他还坦承，姗姗来迟的Model 3量产型已经进入了车身组装阶段。至少在这次会议上，我们看到的还是那个训练有素的马斯克。

《财富》总裁穆瑞澜上月站在股民的角度撰文写道，他为什么暂时还不准备买入特斯拉股票或Model 3轿车——即便马斯克誓言他将努力达到量产目标，他整日睡在特斯拉工厂的地板上云云。穆瑞澜在文中写道：“我还想继续观望一阵，等特斯拉表现出更多的稳定性，再去考虑把我的退休积蓄都拿去买他的股票，或是买一台特斯拉电动车用于上班通勤。另外，我更喜欢一位晚上能在床上睡得着的CEO。”

如果大家都像穆瑞澜这么想，马斯克要想给特斯拉增加几十亿市值，或许并不需要那么变态地折磨自己，他只需要好好睡一觉，保持幼儿园水平的基本礼貌就行了。这样一来，特斯拉在股民眼中的价值或许会增加很多。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎 

Among the many faces of Elon Musk—for a glimpse of how many, look no further than the Musk memes—the Tesla CEO seems to have found the persona most likely to make him rich: Apologetic Elon.

Tesla stock surged as much as 13% last Wednesday evening after a quarterly earnings call in which Musk apologized on three separate occasions, including personally saying sorry to two Wall Street analysts he’d berated on the previous quarter’s conference call. At the time in May, Musk had cut off and refused to respond to the analysts, lambasting them for their “boring, bonehead questions.” Tesla stock had plunged 5.5% the day after, tumbling a total of more than 9% over the following weeks.

On last Wednesday, Musk took responsibility for his behavior. “I’d like to apologize for, you know, being impolite on the prior call,” he told Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein, allowing him to ask the first question. “Honestly, I think there’s really no excuse for bad manners, and I was kind of violating my own rule in that regard.

“There are reasons for it in that I’d gotten no sleep, and been working sort of 110-hour, 120-hour weeks,” Musk continued. (That equates to working 17 hours a day, seven days a week.) “But nonetheless there’s still no excuse. My apologies for not being polite on the prior call.”

To Joseph Spak of RBC Capital Markets—another target of the CEO’s temper last quarter—Musk added, “That was not right, and I hope you accept my apologies.”

Investors certainly accepted them. Never mind that Tesla reported record net losses for the second quarter that were even steeper than Wall Street had expected. Here was well-rested Elon. Zen Elon. Rather than disgruntled, grumpy Elon whining that analysts’ questions were “killing” him, this was contemplative Elon—answering blue-sky questions from Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas: Does Musk worry that autonomous cars will eventually be seen as weapons-grade technology? (Not at all: “It’s just like, the car’s trying to drive.”) Which of Amazon and BMW does he see as the bigger competitive threat? (Neither: “I would be pretty shocked if Amazon got into the car business.”)

Although Tesla stock rose slightly upon the release of the financial results themselves, it wasn’t until Musk started talking that it really took off, boosting Tesla’s market value by more than $5 billion in after-hours trading.

You could audibly hear analysts’ sighs of relief as it became clear that reasonable, grounded Elon had returned. After all, while Tesla’s stock price had recovered in early June, it fell as much as 21% over the past month and a half leading up to Wednesday’s call as Musk’s erratic tweeting and a series of offensive remarks raised concerns about his fitness as a leader. Musk’s name-calling a Thai rescue diver a “pedo” (short for pedophile) in mid-July precipitated a 4% decline in Tesla stock (though the CEO’s subsequent apologyseemed to somewhat reassure investors).

But this was respectful Elon, who even, in a rare move, took questions from journalists (of The Wall Street Journal and CleanTechnica)—a frequent punching bag of his—and even thanked them for their “in-depth coverage.”

“There’s so much love and respect for colleagues and Wall Street analysts on this call it is lifting my spirits, what can I say?” Jonas noted aloud during the Q&A.

It was a measured, convincingly honest version of Elon, who cautioned that just because Tesla isn’t running out of cash (he swore the company would not need to raise more capital for the foreseeable future) doesn’t mean it’s “rolling in money,” and acknowledged that Tesla’s biggest slowdown for Model 3 production right now is in assembling the cars’ bodies. At least, it was a well-coached Elon.

Fortune president Alan Murray spoke for many investors when he wrote last month about why he’s not ready to buy Tesla stock or a Tesla Model 3—even as Musk vowed that he was working so hard to hit production goals, he’d been sleeping on the Tesla factory floor. “I’d like to see a little more stability before entrusting him with either my retirement savings or my morning commute,” Murray wrote. “I prefer a CEO who has the confidence to sleep soundly in her bed at night.”

If all it takes to increase Tesla’s value by a few billion dollars is Musk getting a good night’s sleep and maintaining a kindergarten level of human decency, the company may find itself much more valuable as investors with Murray’s line of thinking come on board.