As long as you have nothing to do with Tesla, Elon Musk is the gift that keeps on giving.

If you do have something to do with Tesla, I’m sorry to say that he’s been on Twitter again.

The good news is that he plans on taking a break from his favourite social media platform for a couple of days.

Before he went on his Twitter vacation, however, he couldn’t help getting just one more out there.

Here’s the Guardian with that shocker from last month:

The SEC in September charged Musk, 47, with misleading investors with tweets in August that said he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share and had “funding secured”. The tweets had no basis in fact, and the ensuing market chaos hurt investors, regulators claimed.

Tesla and Musk have agreed to pay $20m each to financial regulators and, under a settlement, the billionaire will step down as the company’s chairman but remain as chief executive.

The latest tweet came in response to a Twitter user who asked Musk if he regretted the tweet that started all of this.

I’m pretty sure the people at Tesla who had to clean up that mess would disagree.

Under the settlement agreement that resulted from Elon’s compulsive tweeting, Tesla has to appoint an independent chairman by November 13.

James Murdoch is seen as a leading contender. Murdoch is set to leave the role of chief executive of 21st Century Fox when the entertainment company completes the sale of the majority of its assets to Disney, and will be succeeded by his brother, Lachlan. He joined Tesla’s board last year as a non-executive director and has reportedly said he wants the job of chair.

Here’s where it gets interesting:

The SEC charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures for Musk’s tweets. The SEC said the company had no way to determine if his tweets contained complete and accurate information.

Under the SEC settlement, Elon is going to have to work within the parameters of the company’s communications procedures when tweeting about the firm.

If this list of all the weird stuff he’s said over the last while is anything to go by, he’s going to have a tough time complying with that one.

For a couple of days at least, Tesla can rest easy. Elon has not tweeted since Saturday, although he is probably itching to go.

*Makes popcorn, hits refresh.*

[source:guardian]