Late last week, Elon Musk confirmed that he has the necessary funding to make Tesla a private company but no longer wishes to do so due to this investors pleading not to. Musk announced that his intentions have shifted and will leave Tesla as a publicly-owned company. The news follows a nerve racking three weeks where US Securities and Exchange commission were involved in the conversation.
Musk stated that the funding to transition the company into being privately owned was secured when he was conducting the process of exploring future options for Tesla. On August 7th, Musk tweeted that the funding was secured for the transition which led to investor outcry and the SEC being involved.
According to Musk’s statement, the main reason that his motivation shifted was from multiple requests from Tesla’s shareholders. He said that after the feedback that he has received, it is apparent that the majority of Tesla’s shareholders believe that the company is in a better position if it stays publicly owned. On top of that, Musk also stated that several institutional shareholders have expressed that they are limited by how much they can invest in a privately owned company due to internal compliance issues.
While a lot of the shareholders stated that they would remain with Tesla regardless of their status, the overall message from them was “please don’t this”. Musk also added that currently there is no effective way for retail investors to own shares of Tesla if the company went private.
After putting this issue behind them, Musk hopes that now Tesla can focus on building a stronger company and turning a profit in the upcoming years. This statement refers to the issues that Tesla has been facing this year. Musk had an interview with the New York Times where he stated that 2018 has been one of the most difficult years of his career.
Company work along with the combination of sleeping problems led Musk to spending his 47th birthday working 24 hours at the Tesla factory.
