Tesla Co-Founder and CEO; Elon Musk slammed the company’s co-founder Martin Eberhard on Twitter Friday calling him the “worst person” he’s ever worked with and accusing him of almost “killing Tesla.”
“The Tesla founding story portrayed by Eberhard is clearly false,” Musk tweeted on Friday. “I wish I’d never met him. Eberhard is by far the worst person I’ve worked with in my entire career. Considering how many people I’ve worked with over the years, that’s really saying something.“
In another tweet, Musk said Eberhard’s management style had nearly drowned the company.
Musk said, “He came close to killing Tesla through a combination of poor management decisions, taking out talented people, poor engineering, major blunders in the supply chain, and an elaborate deception about the Tesla Roadster’s actual cost and schedule.”
Eberhard left Tesla in 2007, and Musk said this was due to the board’s submission of evidence of deception and fraud.
Musk tweeted, “Once the board was presented with evidence of Eberhard’s deceit/fraud and the dire state of the company, all board members, including those he appointed, voted unanimously to sack him in August 2007.” did.”
Since Eberhard’s 2007 departure, Eberhard and Musk had disagreements over who should be labeled as the company’s “founder” and Eberhard went so far as to file a court case for slander against Musk after leaving the company.
The defamation suit was later Settled Out of court and five individuals, including Eberhard and Musk, were eventually allowed to call themselves co-founders of the company.
Musk said on Twitter that he is considering putting together a “hardcore history” type podcast to explain what happened at Tesla in the early years.
“There’s nothing quite like the richest man in the world attacking you,” Eberhard told Granthshala Business in a statement Friday night.