Tesla Is Becoming a Punchline on Other Companies' Earnings Calls

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk's abrasive behavior has already become the butt of jokes on other companies' earnings calls.

After the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. cut off analysts and called their questions dry, boring and boneheaded, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Tal Liani drew laughter with the way he set up an inquiry to Arista Networks Inc.'s CEO Jayshree Ullal.

“Hi, Jayshree. I'll ask a question and you'll yell at me like the Tesla call and I'm going to be famous after that,” the analyst said Thursday on the cloud-networking company's first-quarter earnings call. “I can't wait to hear the question,” Ullal replied.

Credit Suisse analyst Robert Moskow gave comedy a try toward the end of Pinnacle Foods Inc.'s teleconference on Thursday: “I guess my comment is that this is a lot more boring than the Tesla earnings call, but certainly better results, I guess,” he said.

“Your questions aren't boring,” Pinnacle CEO Mark Clouse said. Moskow replied: “Well, you haven't heard the question yet.”

TransAct Technologies Inc. CEO Bart Shuldman also had a little fun Thursday, after the printer manufacturer's conference call operator said there were no more analysts in the queue.

“I don't know if people decided not to ask questions because they thought this was a Tesla phone conference call, but I'm sorry there are no more questions,” he said. “I'd like to thank everybody for joining us on the call this afternoon.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Trudell in Southfield, Michigan, at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Jamie Butters

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