Cory Steuben’s New Gig: Lucid Motors

[TheLastStarfighter]

I don’t know

Irrelevant to decorum though

Truth is never irrelevant.

 

[CyberGus]

Truth is never irrelevant.

Truth is the only thing that can be irrelevant.

 

[Dusty]

Honestly, I thought it was there or Rivian, and Sandy blew a gasket when he found out. I bet they're paying him in gold bars. Good on him. Take the money and run, my man.

https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/cory-leaving-munro.8907/post-166814

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

these exec comp packages can be misleading and confusing.

In 2022 Musk made zero at Tesla.

but in 2021 Musk made $23.5 billion in stock options

Sort of similarly, Lucid’s CEO had a market cap performance target in his deal, which market cap target he hit last year (to be paid this year), equaling the 350M over his $500k base salary

I’m not saying it’s not wild money. But it *was* a performances based pay trigger negotated, and who knows how long his contract will have him making far less for a while?

Musk making $23,000,000,000.00 in a year isn’t exactly comprehensible, either.

Lucid’s CEO payout of $379M is an unbelievable 1.8% of Musk’s payout

Put differently: in 2021, Musk “made”the equiv of the Lucid payout every week of the year

Apples and oranges. Tesla is a profitable company and Lucid is not. Tesla will deliver ~1.75 M vehicles this year, has power walls and mega batteries, etc., and Lucid will deliver 10K units? I am not saying that Musk's compensation is justified, but at least Tesla is in the black. I do not see Cory S. as the right man to help Lucid out of its mess. Lucid needs someone with a lot of different kinds of chops: in large scale vehicle manufacturing, efficiency, technology. I wish him luck but I am not convinced that Lucid will last long so it might not be a very good resume item.

 

[DMC-81]

seems like it is

because you say things like:





you’re treating it as though it’s pay based on 2022 performance or production

But it very well could be a term from his joining in 2019, that if by X date the market cap of company is Y, then his payout will be based on Z

and to repeat, I’m not saying it doesn’t sound like crazy money

I was instead only injecting that comments just like yours appear to display a misunderstanding of how these comp packages can work, and what they’re based on

Money he happens to be paid in calendar year 2022 does not equate to money he earned in calendar year 2022

Again, I know how it works, and again It looks bad.

The comparisons I drew were to illustrate that point based on what was happening in the company and the market at the time the shares were sold.

The share price peaked in Q4 2021 and halved from roughly $40 to $20 and the delivery estimates were reduced by the time the compensation committee of the board of directors met at the end of May 2022.

Current company health should be a factor in the timing of payouts of these packages (and salary increases).

Timing.
Optics.

 

[flowerlandfilms]

GM electric vehicles fail to excite the market.
GM in an act of desperation buys Lucid.
Corey goes to GM.
Corey replaces Mary Barra as CEO of General Motors.
Prove me wrong kids.
PROVE ME WRONG.

 

[cvalue13]

Current company health should be a factor in the timing of payouts of these packages (and salary increases).

Timing.
Optics.

if optics is all your orig post was driving at, it wasn’t clear

and I’m not saying there aren’t notable differences, but:

[Lucid] made $608 million in revenue in 2022, so the compensation package was 62% of that.

Tesla made $12B in revenue in 2022, so Musk’s 2022 compensation was 182% of that


Bad optics fine. Different from my post saying these comp packages are complicated and confusing, so it’s sometimes hard to discern what the relevant critique is

 

[Sri]

these exec comp packages can be misleading and confusing.

In 2022 Musk made zero at Tesla.

but in 2021 Musk made $23.5 billion in stock options

Sort of similarly, Lucid’s CEO had a market cap performance target in his deal, which market cap target he hit last year (to be paid this year), equaling the 350M over his $500k base salary

I’m not saying it’s not wild money. But it *was* a performances based pay trigger negotated, and who knows how long his contract will have him making far less for a while?

Musk making $23,000,000,000.00 in a year isn’t exactly comprehensible, either.

Lucid’s CEO payout of $379M is an unbelievable 1.8% of Musk’s payout

Put differently: in 2021, Musk “made”the equiv of the Lucid payout every week of the year

As usual, the devil is in the details.
For Musk's package the performance requirements were substantial, that many thought were impossible at that time. It's not just market cap. Every $50 Billion additional market cap that stays there for at least 6 months, only triggers the tranche. There were several other requirements for income, revenue and other product based metrics that need to be met for him to get the stocks. Also there were lock in periods that ensured he doesn't benefit unless the company remains great. In short unless the stock holders get sustainable returns in multiples, not just percentages, Elon will end up with worse than nothing. That incredible deal was why, I, along with the vast majority of stock holders, enthusiastically voted "Yes" for that deal.

OTOH, if memory serves me right, Rawlinson's "performance" package entirely depended upon boosting the stock price one time. Also the package was allocated before the merger was completed and the stock started trading as $LCID. That means the poor saps who bought the stock in the 50s thinking this is going to be the next Tesla never had a say in his package. The only people who had a say were Rawlinson himself and the original SPAC holders whose sole purpose was to make some quick bucks. To put it bluntly, this is his payout for a very successful pump. This should be a red flag for anyone investing in the company and not trading.

 

[Sri]

Tesla made $12B in revenue in 2022, so Musk’s 2022 compensation was 182% of that

Ummm. No. $12B in Net income. The Revenue was over $81 Billion. And, BTW, I think Peter Rawlinson had a handsome package in 2021 too. Musk's package was based on what he was supposed to achieve from 2018-2028. He just did it early.

 

[cvalue13]

Ummm. No. $12B in Net income.

Yes, minced words with the prior revenue statement

bad compare on my part

 

[cvalue13]

As usual, the devil is in the details.

Which is all my original comment was attempting to say

I said it’s still nutty money

was adding only that knowing exactly how nutty, in which ways, takes digging into the details

to repeat (a third time), I’m not trying to defend the package - that would be dumb

instead that “he made X when the stock was Y” didn’t give me sufficient info to know the relevant critique

appreciate you doing the work to add a view with relevant context

 

[Mini2nut]

I hope Cory left the door open at Monroe. If it weren’t for Saudi funding Lucid would have been toast by now.

 

[Sri]

Which is all my original comment was attempting to say

I said it’s still nutty money

was adding only that knowing exactly how nutty, in which ways, takes digging into the details

to repeat (a third time), I’m not trying to defend the package - that would be dumb

instead that “he made X when the stock was Y” didn’t give me sufficient info to know the relevant critique

appreciate you doing the work to add a view with relevant context

Simply saying both are "nutty money" puts them in the same bucket. That's why I had to provide details and context. The point is it's not just the dollars. One should make investors delighted and the other should make them run for the exit. Big difference. Another important difference is Elon's package has became much bigger due to the stock price rocketing. Lucid's stock is less than when it was just a $10 SPAC stock. Yet the package is huge.

 

[cvalue13]

Simply saying both are "nutty money" puts them in the same bucket.

I didn’t say ‘both’

in any event, your points are well taken and good context that is relevant to honing in on the relevant critics of the Lucid package

I intended to compare Musk’s comp package that year as an example of how these comp packages are hard to judge when cherry picked or incorrectly framed as being relevant to a single calendar year

because if framed as relevant to a single calendar year, I don’t care what Tesla’s performance might be, $23B makes no sense

 

[Sri]

I didn’t say ‘both’

in any event, your points are well taken and good context that is relevant to honing in on the relevant critics of the Lucid package

I intended to compare Musk’s comp package that year as an example of how these comp packages are hard to judge when cherry picked or incorrectly framed as being relevant to a single calendar year

because if framed as relevant to a single calendar year, I don’t care what Tesla’s performance might be, $23B makes no sense

In the case of Lucid, it does make sense framing it as a single year. Because it is solely based on stock performance at one point in time, not even a single year. No long term company related goals attached. Also as I have pointed out he received such similar stellar package in 2021 too.

And I thought I have explained why Elon's package makes sense. If any other CEO offers a deal like that (he/she gets nothing unless the stockholders get tremendous gain) I would be seriously consider investing in that company.