[pdq]

Not good when a CFO abruptly resigns (or is fired). Usually companies project this quarters ahead to the public, with a soft notice that "XYZ will be retiring next year".

Yes, Kirkhorn "will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition", but this reads as a rush notice.

His IR page is also gone:

https://ir.tesla.com/corporate/zachary-kirkhorn

[dvt]

> Yes, Kirkhorn "will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition", but this reads as a rush notice.

I don't own any $TSLA (or one of their cars), but this is like the opposite of a rush notice. Heck, he will continue working for Tesla for almost half the year. Seems like typical HN "everything Elon does is bad" bandwagoning.

I mean, just earlier today the HP CFO resigned[1] and was replaced immediately.

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hewlett-packard-enterprise-cf...

[henrikschroder]

> Heck, he will continue working for Tesla for almost half the year.

Learn to read between the lines. Remember how their director of AI, Karpathy, went on a sabbatical? That was also a lie.

[frankreyes]

Yeah but nobody cares about HP and their silly printers. Also, Elon doesn't have anything to do with HP

[somethoughts]

Also not sure Tesla shareholders are going to want folks putting HP and Tesla in the same sentence.

HP is obviously misfiring so the CFO should be turning over based on historical data so its decidedly not newsworthy.

Tesla on the other hand is supposedly firing on all cylinders, so its abnormal for the CFO to exit just before what's expected to be hockey stick profitability given the heavy stock based compensation.

HP P/E is 12x. Tesla P/E is 70x. Tesla at HP's multiple would be a $40 stock.

[alliao]

Just thought this was funny, as Tesla's engineering HQ is now located in the Stanford Research Park, 3000 Hanover St, where HP was

[woah]

Your Tesla's battery cartridge is low on ink. Please replace your Tesla battery cartridge with a certified genuine replacement cartridge at the nearest Tesla dealership.

[OJFord]

You've run out of non-motorway Watt-hours. Our patented iCohesiveBatt system houses both motorway and non-motorway Watt-hours, and can be replaced as a single unit for your convenience!

[hnfong]

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is not HP and does not make printers.

Perhaps nobody cares about HPE either, but at least get your facts right.

[frankreyes]

It's a joke. Have some fun

[Iulioh]

>he will continue working for Tesla for almost half the year

Well that's in the the declaration

[Ryder123]

Do we know whether "the end of the year" is the fiscal year or calendar year? Given the context fiscal year seems very plausible, and that's less than 2 months away.

[red-iron-pine]

HP is not a great comparison for... anything. maybe trainwrecks or dumpster fires.

[throwaway914]

but like.. objectively what he does is bad. I wish there were a smaller bandwagon to bandwagon-onto.

[uristohkrat]

Expand upon your idea: 'but like.. objectively what he does is bad'

[gscho]

Not the OP but we could mention that time where he called a hero a pedophile or when he bought twitter to promote free speech and then banned anyone who said negative things about him. No one human should have 260 billion dollars and be thought of as a good person unless they do a ton of philanthropy.

[NotSuspicious]

Now, I'm not saying this is the case for Musk, but surely if a person that rich was heavily investing in technological research that resulted in positive feedback loops that benefitted humankind then they would be a pretty good person, right? Who was really a better person: Mother Teresa or Norman Borlaug?

[upon_drumhead]

greater then 259 billion dollars of philanthropy

[edgyquant]

None of this is objective

[throwaway914]

Objectively it is bad to defame and distract from a public servant rescuing kids from a cave.

(Objectively.)

[redavni]

Because all the other humans throughout history that launched a car they built, on a rocket they built did it better, right?

To be fair, I am actually still annoyed about the whole x.com thing. They closed my account when they sold to Paypal 23 years ago now. Now it is just some message board.

[hypeit]

> Because all the other humans throughout history that launched a car they built, on a rocket they built did it better, right?

Musk has never built a car or a rocket. He raises money and hypes things. He is not a builder. Hell, he tried to get Paypal to switch to Windows because he doesn't even understand Linux.

[Kranar]

Just to put things in context, the average tenure of a CFO among S&P 500 companies is 3.5 years.

I don't think that's a big deal, but apparently people commenting here think a CFO departing is some kind of major signal of something. At any rate, it's at least worth knowing quantitatively that this happens once every 4 years or so.

[catchnear4321]

agreed, it’s a signal, and in isolation it doesn’t signal much more than the passing of time.

there are any number of things that might cause one to make such a transition, many of which having nothing to do with the company being departed. and, yes, many that do.

it could be because he’s going to be 40 not all that long from now, perhaps a midlife crisis, or an attempt to avert one. or maybe he discovered his true passion in life, basket weaving. (mid-life crisis? mid-life catharsis!)

maybe musk didn’t like his dinner choice. maybe zach laughed when musk said he’d beat zuck in that fight. maybe he failed to laugh at the right time.

right now? who knows.

but a cfo departure with a few months of wind down isn’t conclusive of much more than the cfo leaving and providing a few months of transition time to their successor and the company.

[_ea1k]

The only part that surprises me is that he's so young and leaving this quickly. I can't see him retiring, so what looks more appealing right now?

[paulmendoza]

He only worked for the company for 13 years!

[_ea1k]

True, but only CFO for <5, I think? I just can't imagine a lot of bigger opportunities.

Then again, maybe he wants less stressful opportunities. I'm sure there are plenty of those.

[toomuchtodo]

He has worked at Tesla for 13 years. When would be the right time to go? He’s already done very well from his stock grants.

[NotYourLawyer]

4 months seems like plenty of notice, and the opposite of a rush.

[boringg]

Exactly and hes a CFO not a product leader. Much easier to replace and the learning curve is easier