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When billionaires go to battle, you’d expect elite security teams in suits and choppers scuttling off to island hideouts. The reality — passive-aggressive press releases and tongue-in-cheek retorts — is bereft of the ballyhoo surrounding superstar standoffs like those between Kanye and Drake.
But last week, the long-standing feud between Tesla’s Elon Musk and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon spilled into the public domain when JPMorgan sued Tesla, prompting a less than cordial exchange between the firms.
Elon-gated rift
America’s largest bank and its most valuable automaker haven’t seen eye to eye for some time. On the road to its trillion-dollar valuation, Tesla hasn’t tapped JPMorgan’s investment bankers for a single offering or transaction since 2016.
Musk even turned to rival banks to secure the personal loans he pledged his Tesla stock against. The lawsuit JPMorgan launched last week stems from warrants the bank purchased from the electric automaker way back in 2014:
- JPMorgan claims Tesla still owes $162 million from the deal, now saying “We have provided Tesla multiple opportunities to fulfill its contractual obligations, so it is unfortunate that they have forced this issue into litigation.”
- Tesla has paid JPMorgan based on the warrants’ original strike price, but the carmaker argues adjustments the bank made to the strike price over the life of the warrants were “unreasonably swift” and “opportunistic” — and refused to fork over the $162 million.
The ever-defiant Musk even quipped to the Wall Street Journal, “If JPM doesn’t withdraw their lawsuit, I will give them a one-star review on Yelp.”
Silent Night: Perhaps the spirit of the holiday season can convince these titans of industry to put aside their squabbles. Heck, if Kanye can offer an olive branch to Drake, can’t these two just get along?