Elon Musk says he's broke

PALO ALTO - Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is broke and has been living off personal loans since October 2009, this according to court filings reviewed by online magazine Venture Beat this week."About four months ago, I ran out of cash," Musk wrote in a court filing dated Feb. 23 and reviewed by the website. According to court documents filed as part of Musk's divorce from sci-fi novelist Justine Musk, Elon Musk said he has been living off personal loans from friends while spending $200,000 a month, Venture Beat reported. "Tesla, likewise, is dealing with its cash flow problems by borrowing money from a friendly source - the United States government, which has eagerly backed cleantech startups through a Department of Energy loan program," the report said. "Tesla burned through $37 million in cash in the last three months of 2009, according to amended S-1 documents, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission in preparation for its IPO. Tesla slowed this burn rate in the first quarter of 2010 to $8.4 million, but only by drawing down part of a $465 million loan from the DOE, while reporting a net loss of $29.5 million." Meanwhile, Musk's estranged wife, Justine Musk, blogged recently that she wants $10 million from her husband, plus 10% of his stock in Tesla, 5% of SpaceX and a Tesla Roadster. Venture Beat's full story can be read at www.VentureBeat.com. Tesla announced three weeks ago they would build an electric vehicle assembly plant in Fremont and not Downey.

********** Published: June 4, 2010 - Volume 9 - Issue 7