Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is still up substantially over the past year or so, with the company staging a significant comeback during 2019 when many were quite skeptical about its future prospects.
However, the latest bit of drama involving the automaker now has to do with former employees currently working at a potential rival of Tesla’s. Zoox, a robotics company that’s developing self-driving cars, was sued by Tesla back in March over the company potentially infringing upon trade secrets. After almost a month, the results of this matter have finally been settled between the two companies.
Zoox ended up conceding to the lawsuit. The company admitted wrongdoing in the affair, promising to make payments to Tesla as well as undergo an audit as part of the bargain for settling the legal matter.
“Zoox acknowledges that certain of its new hires from Tesla were in possession of Tesla documents pertaining to shipping, receiving, and warehouse procedures when they joined Zoox’s logistics team,” Zoox said in a statement.
Tesla had initially sued Zoox back in March, claiming that four of its former employees ended up stealing “proprietary information” as well as trade secrets that let Zoox have a significant head start that otherwise would have taken years for the company to develop by itself. Tesla went on to say that this theft was deliberate and obvious, and involving a software platform developed to handle all the manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and other logistical aspects of their business.
More specifically, Tesla went on to claim that one Zoox employee, who used to work at a Tesla distribution center, provided confidential documents that had detailed information about Tesla’s inventory procedures as well as schematics relating to Tesla’s warehouses.
Tesla ended the day up just over 13% if you include after-hours trading, as investors reacted to what was a good piece of news overall. Although shares of Tesla have tumbled from their earlier highs of around $900 per share, Tesla’s stock is still standing much higher than the low $200’s it was trading back in late-2019. Although the company was initially expected to take a hit in sales due to this coronavirus pandemic, analysts remain largely optimistic about the company’s prospects.
This includes analysts from both Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, which both either upgraded or doubled down on their pre-existing “buy” ratings for the automaker. Surprisingly enough, Tesla ended up reporting record sales in China for the month of March. Despite what’s going on with the coronavirus both in China as well as around the world, sales seem to be doing better than some would have thought.
Tesla Company Profile
Founded in 2003 and based in Palo Alto, California, Tesla is a vertically integrated sustainable energy company that also aims to transition the world to electric mobility by making electric vehicles. It sells solar panels and solar roofs for energy generation plus batteries for stationary storage for residential and commercial properties including utilities. The Tesla Roadster debuted in 2008, Model S in 2012, Model X in 2015, Model 3 in 2017, and Model Y in 2020. Global deliveries in 2019 were 367,656 units. Tesla went public in 2010 and employs about 50,000 people. – Warrior Trading News