Can Tesla Defy Gravity?
Musk Hopes So What goes up must come down, as internet entrepreneur Elon Musk has been finding out lately. According to MSNBC, last week, the visionary celebrated a belated 39th birthday by launching an IPO for his latest venture, Silicon Valley-based Tesla Motors. Though the electric vehicle maker has so far produced only one low-volume product and lost more than $230 million since its founding, it generated a significant charge among Wall Street investors. By the end of the first day of trading they’d snapped up 13.3 million shares, netting $226.1 million for Tesla, and had driven the closing price for the day to $23.89, a 40.5 percent gain on the IPO’s strike price of $17. Click here to watch CNBC’s coverage of Tesla going public. There’s no question the automotive market is showing signs of accepting electric vehicles, but as Musk himself acknowledged, there’s no guarantee his little start-up will be around to enjoy that acceptance. To get there, Tesla will have to switch from what
