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Aaron Greenspan
Today, in an article about Carvana Co. (CVNA) earnings—which were moved suddenly last night from early August to this morning, before market open—CNBC neglected to mention what Bloomberg referred to as a $1 billion share issuance. From a share price perspective, CNBC covered the positive, which was that Carvana had restructured part of its debt, but apparently glossed over the negative, which was that existing shareholders would be diluted.
The information about the share issuance was stated in the SEC forms filed by the company, but not in its press release. This isn't too surprising because Carvana Co. (CVNA) is run by a convicted felon and his son. Also, they sell used cars. Any reasonable person, let alone journalist, might be skeptical and on guard especially given the late-breaking change of earnings announcement and the fact that the internet was abuzz last night with rumors of new shares being issued.
I pointed this out to the reporter on the article, Mike Wayland. At 5:27 A.M. PDT, he said, "Thank you for the email. You are completely correct, that should be in there. Was unfortunately distracted with another editing problem and missed that. It is being updated now." This was about an hour-and-a-half after the news broke, and Carvana Co. (CVNA) stock was up 35% and climbing. When I pointed out that there should be an alert to offset the first alert containing the omission, he balked, stating, "articles are frequently updated as information becomes available."
The problem is that the information was available when Mike wrote his article. He just didn't bother to do any research.
Presumably Mike's billion-dollar editing error is fixed now. But it's not clear that it matters; the damage is done. |
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July 19, 2023 at 12:48 PM EDT •  Reply |
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