http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/technology/start-ups/16tesla.html
Tesla Says It Will Lay Off Employees and Delay Its All-Electric Sedan Until 2011 By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Motors, an electric car start-up in Silicon Valley, said Wednesday that it would lay off employees and delay production of its second car, the Model S. Tesla also removed its chief executive, Ze'ev Drori, and appointed Elon Musk, the company's chairman and principal investor, to the position. Elon Musk, principal investor and chief executive of Tesla Motors, with one of his company's $90,000 all-electric Roadsters. Mr. Musk posted the changes on Tesla's Web site. He said the company was in a "critical phase" and would have a positive cash flow within nine months. He blamed the worsening financial crisis and the credit crisis for the upheaval. "It's not an understatement to say that nearly every business will be impacted by what has unfolded in the past weeks," Mr. Musk wrote. The cutbacks come after warnings from Silicon Valley venture capitalists that start-ups should slash expenses and reach profitability as quickly as possible to survive the economic downturn. <more>
