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Chief financial officer (CFO) Zachary Kirkhorn, one of the financial luminaries at the top of Tesla for thirteen years, is saying goodbye to the company. The news comes as a shock, given the important role he has played for the company over the years. But his departure also raises doubts about Tesla's health, as the resignation of a CFO is rarely a good sign.

The gist: Zach Kirkhorn, renamed the "master of coin" at Tesla by Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the Bitcoin hype, has not been chief financial officer at Tesla since Aug. 4, according to a . The stock is under pressure due to his departure, as he was one of Musk's loyal lieutenants for many years.

Comments: "This is a big surprise to Wall Street," Dan Ives, an analyst at Webbush Securities, told business magazine . "It's a short-term blow, because Zach has been an important part of Tesla's historic turnaround over the past five years."

More details:

  • His successor has already been found in the person of Vaibhav Taneja, who holds the position of chief accounting officer and will combine both positions, Tesla reported in the legal document.
  • The company stressed that it had experienced "tremendous expansion and growth" during Kirkhorn's tenure and that he will remain on staff until the end of the year to support the transition.
  • The departure is officially taking place "amicably" between the two parties. Still, speculation is buzzing about the reasons for his exit.

Theory 1: the job is finished

  • Arriving in 2010 as a senior financial analyst, Kirkhorn climbed to chief financial officer in 2019. In this position, he brought order to Tesla's finances. Until then, the company was showing bad financial habits and losing more and more money, up to a billion dollars in cash each quarter.
  • Under Kirkhorn, Tesla became profitable and about $10 billion in debt was paid off during the last three years of his tenure. All that, of course, strengthened Tesla's credit rating.
  • He also helped increase Tesla's market capitalization, which reached $50 billion in 2019 and is now worth more than $770 billion. "Most of the work at Tesla is done," Ives concludes. In other words, he has brought Tesla to where he wanted it and can now move on to a new adventure.

Theory 2: Musk won't budge

The American medium claims that Kirkhorn's decision is related to the fact that Elon Musk has made it clear to him that for now he has no intention of stepping down as Tesla's CEO, a position Kirkhorn aspired to.

Theory 3: feud with Musk

What is most shocking about this announcement is its immediate effect. According to Gary Black, managing partner of the Future Fund, Kirkhorn is not sticking around for a few more months to train his successor; he is gone from Tesla immediately.

  • "Nowhere in the stock market report does it say that Zach has resigned," he noted. "This opens the door to the question: was Zach fired? Or did he disagree with Elon on certain aspects of strategy (price declines/margins) or succession (perhaps Zach was told he was not a candidate for the CEO position)?"
  • "Either way, the instinctive market reaction to the departure of financial executives is that it is usually associated with bad news. Since nothing about $TSLA is 'normal,' I wouldn't jump to that conclusion."

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