Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, General Electric Unplugs its CEO and President Trump sues California over net neutrality.

But first, Elon Musk and the SEC settle their differences.

So last Thursday, federal securities regulators sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk, accusing him of

basically lying in a series of tweets related to his half-baked plan to take Tesla private.

The most notable untruth was an initial tweet that Musk had what he called, quote,

funding secured to buy Tesla at

$420 a share. Now, not only had he allegedly never actually mentioned that price to any potential

investors, but the SEC lawsuit also revealed that that 220 itself was partially chosen because

it's become slang for marijuana, and Musk thought it would impress his girlfriend.

Yeah, seriously, that's what the SEC said. The SEC apparently thought it had a settlement with Musk last

Thursday morning, but then he backed out, believing the allegations to be unjustified. So all signs

pointed to a court battle until late Saturday. When Musk appears to have largely taken the same deal, he didn't

want to take originally. So here's the details of it. It requires him to step down as Tesla

chairman for three years, but he gets to remain as CEO. Also, he and Tesla must each pay a $20 million

penalty. Tesla's got to add a couple independent directors, and Musk must prescreen

any tweets or any other public statements on Tesla with someone the company will hire for that

express purpose. In other words, he's going to have a tweet minder. The only exception is going to be

if Musk gives a media interview, so don't be surprised to see an increase in those. The bottom line

here is that it took a couple days, but Musk did the

only responsible thing by taking the deal. His tweets were reckless and untrue, and even if he had

somehow prevailed in court, it would have only been after months of uncertainty for Tesla employees,

...