A Tesla lawsuit filed Wednesday claims a former employee hacked the company's confidential and trade secret information, transferring several gigabytes of data to outside entities.
XThe Tesla lawsuit claims Martin Tripp stole data that included dozens of confidential photographs. He also allegedly stole a video of the company's manufacturing system, the lawsuit claims. Tripp worked at the Nevada Gigafactory as a process technician since October.
Tesla (TSLA) says Tripp also lied to the media about the information, claiming, for example, that punctured battery cells were used in vehicles.
The Tesla lawsuit was filed in Nevada federal court. Tesla shares were up 1.7% to 358.50 in afternoon trading on the stock market today.
'First True Test'
Meanwhile, Wall Street brokerage Oppenheimer said that Tesla will face the "first true test" of its market position in 2019.
"Bulls point to nearing Model 3 production run-rate targets on revised timelines as a critical bench mark in disrupting the transportation market. Bears point to production inefficiencies inhibiting achievement of sustainable operational cash flow," a group of Oppenheimer analysts, led by Colin Rusch, said in a note to clients. "We believe Tesla, as a manufacturer, must show meaningful progress toward margin targets to justify increased capital investments."
The note says Tesla bulls see impressive market share for the company's existing Models S and X. They also see a large backlog for the mass-produced Model 3. Meanwhile, bears see increasing competition from Tata Motors' (TTM) Jaguar, Volkswagen's (VLKAY) Porsche, Germany's BMW (BMWYY) and Daimler's (DDAIF) Mercedes in luxury electric vehicles.
Further, it seems unlikely that Tesla can go without additional capital infusion, the analysts said. Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the company will seek no more capital.
"While management indicated it wouldn't need additional capital from the equity markets, we believe both bulls and bears expect (Tesla) to raise money for growth capital and to reconcile the $2.3 billion delta between current assets and liabilities," the note said.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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