Elon Musk is serious about taking Tesla private
Updated 8/7/2018, 4:12 p.m. ET with official Tesla statement.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in true Elon Musk fashion, took to Twitter to think out loud about his electric car business.
On the social media platform he noted the possibility of taking Tesla -- a publicly traded company since 2010 -- private.
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Upon the news, Tesla stock quickly shot up to $365, climbing toward $420 -- the amount Musk noted would be the trigger price. Which could very well be a stoner joke. He seemed to find the number very amusing.
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No matter if he was joking or not (update: he apparently wasn't), as soon as Musk tweeted about this, the stock spiked. In other words, his tweet had real market implications.
The stock had already been heading upwards after news about a Saudi Arabian fund with a large (about 3 to 5 percent) stake in the electric car company.
Additionally Musk added "funding secured" -- which raises legal issues about blasting that information out in a tweet. Intentions to buy out public shareholders usually need to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC.
The SEC has a social media policy, but it appears he would still need to properly file notices.
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The SEC website explains that "Form 8-K is the 'current report' companies must file with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about."
Taking Tesla private would certainly qualify.
Paul Huettner, an associate at a financial advisory firm that specializes in restructuring and bankruptcy, said in a call that announcements like this are normally done after markets close. But Musk isn't one to follow norms.
Huettner called it one of the weirdest tweets ever -- at least in the financial world. And if the information in the tweet isn't true, Musk could be looking at some stock price manipulation allegations.
Later in the day, Tesla published a blog post with an email Musk sent to Tesla employees after his Tuesday morning tweet.
In the letter Musk hit several points he made throughout the morning on Twitter about what a private Tesla would look like -- and basically said this is a possibility, not a done deal.
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His email seems to confirm that Musk is at war with anyone trying to short Tesla stock. "Being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company," he wrote.
He assured employees and shareholders that they can stay investors. He also said he's not merging Tesla with SpaceX, another one of the billionaire's companies that is privately held. His 20 percent ownership in Tesla would remain the same, he claims.
Musk emphasized multiple times that the public quarterly schedule doesn't fit with Tesla's goals. "I’m trying to accomplish an outcome where Tesla can operate at its best, free from as much distraction and short-term thinking as possible," he wrote.
Clement Thibault, a senior analyst at Investing.com, said in an email to Mashable that Musk is over the confines of owning a publicly traded company.
"Taking the company private would potentially allow Musk to reign supreme and reduce the pool of people holding him accountable," he said.
He added that the tweet itself is odd. "If you claim to be able to do it, go ahead. What good comes out of tweeting it, except for sending Tesla closer to the designated $420 a share and halting the trading?" he asked.
Tesla's stock was indeed halted after the tweet sent the price up to $367. Musk kept sending Twitter responses answering some questions about what this would mean for shareholders and others.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
