Why Wouldn't SpaceX Pay a Premium for Tesla?

Scott Galloway says SpaceX would not pay a premium for Tesla. About 7 in 10 acquisitions destroy shareholder value, he says, and a special committee for SpaceX shareholders, looking at 300 times earnings for a company whose revenue with growth is flat, would refuse to pay one. Elon Musk has 80% of the voting power there. Scott Galloway still thinks a committee that wants a report it can defend in court ends at a like-for-like swap at the closing share price.

The benchmark he uses is what anyone else would pay for Tesla. His answer is 30 cents on the dollar. Nobody, he says, would pay the current price, much less a premium. He asks whether Apple, which he calls probably the only viable acquirer, would pay about $2 trillion for a Tesla he puts around $1.4 trillion to $1.5 trillion and accept 30% or 40% dilution. He says Apple would never do that. A premium would also, in his view, leave an ugly first day when the combined stock starts trading.