Elon Musk tells Tesla employees the company is 'very close to achieving profitability' after agreeing to pay SEC $20 million

Linette Lopez

Sep 30, 2018, 21:45 IST

Elon Musk tells Tesla employees the company is 'very close to achieving profitability' after agreeing to pay SEC $20 million

Mario Tama/Getty Images
Elon Musk.

Elon Musk told staff that Tesla is "very close to achieving profitability" in a company-wide email on Sunday.
In August Musk told investors that the company would be profitable in the third quarter. Tesla has had only two profitable quarters in its history.
Musk just agreed to pay the SEC $20 million after it filed a suit against him for making "false and misleading" statements that impacted Tesla's stock price.

In an email, Elon Musk told Tesla employees on Sunday they have "one more day of going super hardcore" to close the quarter and the company is "very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong."

Musk assured investors that Tesla would turn a profit in the third quarter in a conference call in August. The company has never turned an annual profit, and has had only two profitable quarters in its history.

Here's the full email:

From: Elon Musk
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2018 1:08:45 AM
To: Everybody
Subject: One more day of going super hardcore and victory is ours!!

We are very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong, but, to be certain, we must execute really well tomorrow (Sunday).

If we go all out tomorrow, we will achieve an epic victory beyond all expectations.

Go Tesla!!!

Thanks for all your hard work,

Elon

This comes just after Musk came to a $20 million settlement with the SEC, which filed a lawsuit against him on Thursday that alleged he tweeted false and misleading statements about Tesla.

The SEC accused Musk of knowingly spreading false information about Tesla to manipulate its stock price. In August Musk tweeted that he was taking Tesla private for $420 a share with "funding secured." He did not have funding secured, and Tesla announced there would be no deal a few weeks later.

As part of the settlement, Musk will have to step downs as Chairman of Tesla's board for at least three years, and there will be more oversight of his communication with investors, including how he uses Twitter.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the email.

(If you are a Tesla employee or customer who has a story to share about a car or experience with the company, give me a shout at llopez@businessinsider.com.)

Get the latest Tesla stock price here.

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