Elon Musk grumbles at short-sellers, but is private ownership right for Tesla? | Nils Pratley

A buy-out could be done, but may not be the paradise the entrepreneur imagines

Tesla's Elon Musk isn't the first chief executive to be infuriated by short-sellers, or to grumble about swings in the share price, or to complain that the outside world is stupidly obsessed by quarterly earnings figures. Prod most bosses of quoted companies and you'll hear similar grumbles. The stock market can be ridiculously short-termist.

In Tesla's case, the complaint sounds roughly fair. Musk declared in his email to staff that Tesla "is the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market". Short positions have equated to 25% of the share capital, currently implying $10bn-plus of bets that the electric car company is over-valued or will fail.