2018年经济学人特斯拉与市场:将特斯拉私有化(1)（打印版）

"I wish we could be private with Tesla." So said an exasperated and exhausted Elon Musk to Rolling Stone last November.

“我希望可以将特斯拉私有化。”去年11月在对话《滚石》杂志时，愤怒又疲惫的埃隆·马斯克说如是。

Tesla's rise has been remarkable.

特斯拉的成长一直引人注目。

In 15 years it has taken on established carmakers to become the world's leading manufacturer of electric cars.

在15年内，特斯拉从既定汽车制造商变成了世界电动车顶级制造商。

But the journey has been bumpy. Of late Mr. Musk says his company has been in "production hell" trying to increase output of the Model 3,

但其成长路程并非一帆风顺。最近，马斯克表示他的公司一直处于“生产地狱”中，他们在设法增加Model 3的产量，

a whizzy mass-market saloon. While on its quest to change the world,

Model 3 是一款出色的畅销轿车。而其对于要改变世界的追求而言，

Tesla has frequently missed its production targets and has never made an annual profit.

特斯拉经常无法完成其生产目标，也从未有过年利润。

Feeling the heat, Mr. Musk earlier this year lashed out at share analysts for "bonehead" questions,

感受到这种高压后，马斯克在今年年初对股票分析师进行猛烈抨击

and has derided the army of short sellers targeting it.

并嘲笑了那些将此作为目标的买空型投资者。

Yet it still came as a shock when, on August 7th, Mr. Musk revealed his intention to take Tesla private in an extraordinary tweet.

但是8月7日，当马斯克在推特上透露他想将特斯拉私有化的意图后，大家还是感到很震惊。

He claimed that he had lined up enough money to buy out the firm at $420 per share, roughly a fifth above the share price at the time.

他声称他准备了足够的资金能够以每股420美元的价格买下公司全部产权，初略估计当时该价格超过其股价的五分之一。

The chaos surrounding the tweet led to a brief suspension of trading of its shares on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

围绕其推文而生出的混乱导致该公司股票在纳斯达克股票交易所短暂停牌。

Then Tesla released a memo confirming Mr. Musk's plan. He added details in subsequent tweets suggesting this was more than a lark.

然后特斯拉发布备忘录证实了马斯克的计划。他在后来的推文中透露了一些细节，这表明该计划并非玩闹。

By the end of the day the firm's shares were up sharply, dealing a costly blow to the shorts.

到那一天结束之前，公司股价飙升，这给那些买空型投资者予以高代价的一击。

Mr. Musk's wish to depart from the public market is understandable, though of late he seems to have made some peace with its constraints.

马斯克脱离公开市场的意愿也是可以理解的，虽然他最近似乎和公开市场中的一些限制达成了和解。

At a quarterly-earnings call on August1st he said output of the Model 3 was rising and forecast profits soon.

8月1日，在一场季度财报电话会议上，他表示Model 3的产量在增长，预测很快就能盈利。

He even apologised to analysts. But private backers with deep pockets would let him expand at his own pace.

他甚至还向分析师道歉。但是财力雄厚的私人赞助商将会让马斯克按照自己的计划进行扩张。

Can he achieve the unlikely yet again? One potential snag might be his cavalier use of tweets to drop his latest bombshell.

他能再一次实现这个似乎不可能的目标么？一个潜在的障碍或许是他在推特上公布了使人大为震惊的消息。

American regulators have ruled that firms are permitted to disclose financial information using social media,

美国监管者规定允许公司利用社交媒体披露财务信息，

but they must not mislead investors.They will be watching to see if his claim of having "funding secured" is borne out.

但不得误导投资者。他们将观望他获得“资金担保”的言论是否属实。