Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
The top two executives at Lordstown Motors have resigned as problems at the Ohio electric truck startup mount.
CEO Steve Burns and Chief Financial Officer Julio Rodriguez stepped down, the company said early Monday, sending shares already down 40% this year tumbling more than 21%.
The departures come less than a week after Lordstown cautioned that it may not be in business a year from now as it struggles to secure funding to begin full production. In a quarterly regulatory filing, the company said that the $587 million it had on hand as of March 31 isn't enough to begin commercial production of its full-sized electric pickup, called the Endurance, at a former General Motors plant in Ohio near Youngstown.
Yet Lordstown ran into trouble not long after it became a publicly traded company last year through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. Going public through a so-called SPAC is typically quicker than traditional initial public offerings that are usually handled by major financial institutions.
In January an Endurance pickup truck prototype caught fire 10 minutes into its initial test drive in Michigan. Then the company failed to pay $570,000 in real estate taxes due in early March.
Company shares have been on a sharp, downward trajectory since February and the stock fell below the initial public offering price of around $10 on Monday.
That could get worse.
Burns, the departing CEO, is the company's largest shareholder with a 26.25% stake, according to FactSet.
Investors that still remain may not want to stick around to find out what happens if and when Burns begins to unload his shares, according to Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley.
That dynamic is playing out as Lordstown's operations are coming under increasing scrutiny, which it was partially shielded from when it went public through a SPAC.
SPACs can cut up to 75% off the time it takes for a company to get its stock trading on an exchange, versus the traditional process of an initial public offering. SPACs can also make it easier to get prospective buyers on board. Companies going the SPAC route often feel more license to highlight projections for big growth they're expecting in the future, for example. In a traditional IPO, the company is limited to highlighting its past performance, which may not be a great selling point for young startups that typically fail to put up big profits or revenue.
Investors in Lordstown include General Motors, which took a 5% stake. Spokesman Jim Cain said Monday that the company's investment is unchanged.
Lordstown named lead independent director Angela Strand as executive chairwoman Monday and said that she will oversee the organization's transition until a permanent CEO is found. Strand is the managing director of advisory firm Strand Strategy.
Becky Roof, who has been an interim chief financial officer at Eastman Kodak, Hudson's Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue, was named interim CFO at Lordstown.
The company has hired an executive search firm to seek out a new CEO and chief financial officer.
Also on Monday, the company responded to a scathing March report from the short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, which questioned the number of preorders the company claimed to have received for its marquee Endurance vehicle.
The report spawned four potential class-action lawsuits against Lordstown by investors who claim they were defrauded.
Lordstown said its independent investigation found that the vast majority of the Hindenburg report was unsubstantiated. However, it acknowledged that one potential buyer that made a large number of preorders doesn't appear to have adequate resources to make those purchases. Other preorders appear too vague or weak to be relied on, the company said Monday.
--------
AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York, and AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit, contributed to this story
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.