They take the "official" accounting earnings and add back in charges they either 1) don't feel represent the true financial position or 2) are one-off charges. In this case they back out stock-based compensation (like most companies), turning GAAP earnings of $311m into adjusted earnings of $516m. Voila!

It can also include the fines payable after settlement with SEC

Worth noting that Tesla didn't really experience those losses due its special stock issuance to Musk to cover the portion of the fine that was due to Tesla. The only material effect to Tesla's corporate finances from that debacle was Musk now has more concentrated equity ownership of the company.

I think that money helps on the cashflows side, but not in the income statement.

> Musk now has more concentrated equity ownership of the company

You mean Musk gained control through that, not lost it? How so? That's quite different an assumption from what I expected.

Correct. Details can be found discussed in the "Tesla" section of this link: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-22/front-...

Yes, it's an interesting result of corporate mismanagement, that he gets to sign off (with board approval, but let's be honest about the control they have) on even more equity stake. However, he did have to give up the chairmanship, so overall he lost control of the company though in this dimension (portion of equity ownership) it is an interesting curiosity and contradiction.