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This is all about a deal between Tesla and Toyota.Ok now see the news…

Will the Toyota-Tesla collaboration on electric cars, announced on Thursday, be a successful marriage of cultures? Opinion appears split, with one analyst saying that the companies complement each other, and another expecting a rapid divorce.

http://thetechjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/tesla-model-s-sedan-road.jpgTesla Motors seemed to have scored quite the coup earlier this month when it landed a deal with Toyota, but it now looks like things might be a tad more complicated than first suggested.

James Bell, an executive market analyst at Kelley Blue Book, is skeptical. “I think it opens up more questions than it answers,” he said. “It’s a real confirmation for Tesla, its vision and what it’s trying to do, but it also indicates that Toyota’s electric car technology could be lagging behind Nissan’s. It’s a partnership that could be ripe for unraveling. Toyota is sort of slow and methodical, and how well will that integrate with Tesla, which shoots from the hip as it makes deals and partnerships to build up its business?”

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk just closed a $50 million deal with Toyota, but his personal finances are a mess. By his own admission, he’s busted.

“About four months ago, I ran out of money,” Musk wrote in a court filing, dated Feb. 23, unearthed by Owen Thomas of VentureBeat.

The long and the short of it is Musk, who made his fortune at Zip2 and PayPal, has since October been living on loans from friends. The revelations are contained within the paperwork filed during Musk’s divorce from his wife, Justine Musk. VentureBeat says it’s been a contentious split and it has further strained Musk’s finances.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk just closed a $50 million deal with Toyota, but his personal finances are a mess. By his own admission, he’s busted.

“About four months ago, I ran out of money,” Musk wrote in a court filing, dated Feb. 23, unearthed by Owen Thomas of VentureBeat.

The long and the short of it is Musk, who made his fortune at Zip2 and PayPal, has since October been living on loans from friends. The revelations are contained within the paperwork filed during Musk’s divorce from his wife, Justine Musk. VentureBeat says it’s been a contentious split and it has further strained Musk’s finances.

According to Tesla, there is no formal deal with Toyota on electric car development, only an “intention to cooperate,” and Toyota’s proposed $50 million investment in the company isn’t a done deal either. It’s apparently dependent on Tesla’s IPO happening before December 31st of this year — if that falls apart or gets pushed back, the deal is off. What is officially happening, however, is Tesla’s $42 million purchase of a closed Toyota plant in San Francisco that will be used to produce the Model S sedan — which itself is apparently still set to go into production in 2012, and run about $49,900.

According to the court filings, Musk earned an average of $17.8 million annually between 2005 and 2008 and brought in another $48 million in investment income. He has sunk a lot of that money into Tesla Motors, his aerospace firm Space-X and his solar energy startup SolarCity.

The state of Musk’s finances are more than a Silicon Valley soap opera — Musk is the lead investor in Tesla and a primary source of money since its founding in 2003.

Tesla burned through $236.4 million between its founding and the third quarter of last year. It lost another $37 million in the last three months of last year, according to a revised S1 form Tesla filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its impending initial public offering. The losses fell to $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2010 as Tesla started drawing on a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy.

As VentureBeat notes, the best way for Musk to dig himself out of this hole is for Tesla to go public so he can cash out some of the 81 million shares he holds in the company. Tesla hopes to raise $100 million, and Toyota has agreed to buy $50 million in stock but only if the IPO happens by Dec. 31.

Resources :wheels.blogs.nytimes.com, wired.com, engadget.com