I agree with you mostly, but price per share does carry some information. You don't think there would be any difference if the price per share were $0.00001 as opposed to $1,000,000 - even if the market cap were the same? There is a subtle difference because the price is determined by the buying and selling of the shares - and different types of people would be buying and selling the shares at these prices.
Much as I like the Roadster, I'm extremely pessimistic about Tesla's chances. Established auto companies with much deeper pockets would have trouble bringing the Model S to market. Tesla hasn't been very successful selling the Roadster, a car whose $100k price tag ensures it's selling to a demographic that doesn't care about service, warranty, or battery-replacement costs. The Model S will be an order of magnitude more difficult to sell, even assuming they meet their own overly-optimistic development schedule.
Seems like a good time to try their luck though. Demand for non-petroleum powered cars is building, nobody is established as a manufacturer and it seems the technology is now up to the job. It's still a gamble, but the odds seem a bit better than usual.
I've seen too much news trying to spin the "Tesla raises $221MM" as a huge number. Sure, for most of us that hack away on web apps, $221 million is insanely high, but it's important to remember that Tesla's operating at a loss of nearly half a billion right now and is still losing money. The S is necessary to turn the cash flow around.
I really like Tesla (the company) but I would avoid Tesla (the stock). You're buying an awful lot of risk for that price. In fact I would be surprised if there weren't already significant amount of short sellers interested in this.
Massive competition from many established companies, $300M+ tooling costs to roll out a new car, low profit margins, high marketing costs, long sales cycles, etc... Auto manufactuing is a bad business to be in, maybe second only to operating airlines. And Tesla owns no special ip on their battery tech, they will likely have to do a lot of dilution in the future to stay alive. That said, I wish them luck, and if anyone can do it, it's Elon Musk.
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[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 47.6 ms ] threadAlthough if you already knew about the earlier plans you mention, than the new 17$ per share is news. (I was not that informed.)
The buyers set a price they will pay, possibly a price x number of shares matrix.
Then the company picks a price to maximize the amount brought in.