Schwarzenegger Wants to Terminate His Tesla Roadster

When Tesla Motors launched its all-electric Roadster sports car, celebrities lined up to order one — including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now we hear he's been trying to return it for months. More »

The End of Second Life

Those who can't do, teach. Second Life, the most overhyped virtual world, has been abandoned even by its most fervent journalistic promoters, like Reuters and Wired. It's now pitching itself as an online schoolhouse. More »

Why Tesla's Elon Musk Could Be the New Preston Tucker

Tesla Motors, the best hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-transportation industry, is headed over a financial cliff. The only question is how many customers the electric sportscar maker will take for a ride. More »

How Ashton Kutcher killed a startup guy's Hollywood dream

It was a fantasy left over from the last boom: Hire a movie star to pitch your startup, and the dusting of tinsel will turbocharge sales. Those William Shatner ads sold plane tickets for Priceline, right? But the career of hard-partying entrepreneur Andrew Frame did not follow that script. We hear he was just fired as CEO of the Internet-phone startup he cofounded, Ooma. His most notable decision, hiring actor Ashton Kutcher as "creative director," did not pan out; Kutcher made a few incomprehensible videos, and then faded from the scene. More »

Tesla to borrow $40 million from investors

The slow-motion crash of Tesla Motors continues. Last week, an insider revealed the electric-car maker, once the best hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-transportation industry, had only $9 million in the bank. Now, Elon Musk, the investor who recently deposed the company's CEO, claims the company has commitments for another $40 million in financing from some of its current investors, a group which includes Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and former eBay president Jeff Skoll. But that money is debt, not equity. More »

Tesla Motors has $9 million in the bank, may not deliver cars

The Valley's hottest electric-car maker is running on fumes. Tesla Motors, the brightest hope of Silicon Valley's nascent clean-automotive industry, has only $9 million in the bank, a longtime employee tells us. The company, which recently laid off dozens of employees and announced the closing of its Detroit office, called an all-hands meeting yesterday evening to inform employees of its financial state. What makes the company's low cash balance especially scary, our tipster says, is that the company has taken "multiple tens of millions" of dollars in deposits from customers — anywhere from $5,000 to $60,000 per vehicle — and has only delivered 50 of them. The obvious conclusion: Having already spent its customers' deposits, it may run out of money before it delivers the cars they have paid for. Here's the Tesla insider's report: More »