The associated press is reporting that Nikola Tesla, the inventor who died in 1943, has miraculously risen from the dead. According to friends, he was getting annoyed with companies using his name and getting large valuations. He mustered up some energy, got up and immediately hired a lawyer to seek compensation.
Lawyers for Nikola Tesla made the following statement. "I appreciate companies like Elon Musk's Tesla Motors and Trevor Milton's Nikola Motors using my client's good name. My client, however, died penniless and I think he deserves a bit of the upside here. I mean, let's be honest, who would buy a car from something named The Musk Motor Company? And the Trevor Milton Corporation sounds like a toy company from 1940. Without my client's good name, it's clear that both of these companies are worth a lot less than they are now. My client deserves some compensation."
No response yet from Tesla or Nikola Motors.
Story developing...
What you can learn from this fake news
Tesla is valued close to $200 billion with $25 billion in sales. Nikola is valued at $20 billion with $0 in sales, but is opening up pre-orders soon. Nikola Tesla died broke.
According to Robin Track (a site that tracks Robinhood holders of stocks, generally agreed smaller retail investors), users holding NKLA stock have exploded to 140,000!
Nikola Motor Company: 7 things to know about the rising Tesla competitor, Fast Company
Nikola Founder Has $7.4 Billion Fortune on Free Truck Orders, Bloomberg
Nikola Motor to open pre-orders for fuel cell pickup truck to compete with Ford, Tesla, TechCrunch
How Elon Musk's Tesla got its name, Fox Business
A fun related aside of name confusion in public markets: Zoom Technologies Trading Suspended After Ticker Confusion, Bloomberg