Coverage: Musk decides against taking Tesla private

Tesla Inc. will remain a publicly traded company, CEO Elon Musk said late Friday, just weeks after he floated the idea of going private in order to ward off short-sellers and volatility in the company’s stock.

Javier E. David of CNBC.com had the news:

However, in a post on Tesla’s website, Musk cited resistance from shareholders, in addition to other logistical hurdles, as rendering the proposition unattractive.

“Given the feedback I’ve received, it’s apparent that most of Tesla’s existing shareholders believe we are better off as a public company,” Musk wrote. “There is also no proven path for most retail investors to own shares if we were private.”

Musk appeared to heed a growing furor among Tesla’s investors, with a few expressing their disapproval amid the CEO’s increasingly erratic public behavior.

“Although the majority of shareholders I spoke to said they would remain with Tesla if we went private, the sentiment, in a nutshell, was ‘please don’t do this,'” Musk wrote.

Raymond Wong of Mashable reported that the decision may allow CEO Elon Musk to creep out of the limelight:

In addition to helming Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, it appears Musk’s personal life hasn’t been smooth sailing either, which could have also contributed to his irresponsible tweeting.

The billionaire entrepreneur was dating musician Grimes for several months, but after his Twitter meltdown prompted her to withhold his phone, the two may have split up. Musk and Grimes unfollowed each other on Twitter and while neither has officially confirmed the breakup, it’s 2018 and we’re not stupid.

Musk’s decision to keep Tesla public will brush much of the blowback under the rug for a little bit and buy him some much-needed time away from the spotlight, but things won’t get easier. Next quarter is right around the corner and Wall Street will be back to eat him and Tesla up.

Honestly, it might be time for Musk to grow some thicker skin, especially if he’s in it for the long haul. And maybe tweet less, too.

Jethro Mullen of CNNMoney.com reported that Tesla seemed to be having trouble securing the financing to go private:

Musk’s announcement that he has abandoned the plan to go private is unlikely to be the end of the saga.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking at Musk’s August 7 tweet in which he said he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private.

Musk later explained that he was talking about a meeting he had had with officials of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. He said he left the meeting with “no question” that a deal could be closed.

But he gave no indication — and still hasn’t — that he had “secured” funding. US regulators are likely to seek to establish whether investors were misled.

Musk said in the New York Times interview that nobody else at Tesla reviewed his “funding secured” tweet before he posted it while en route from his house to the airport.