Musk denies news Murdoch poised to be Tesla chairman
sydney/munich — Tesla CEO Elon Musk denied a report in the
Financial Times that James Murdoch is poised to replace him as chairman, prolonging the uncertainty over leadership at the electric-car maker after a deal with the US securities regulator.
Murdoch, the CEO of TwentyFirst Century Fox and a Tesla board member, is the lead candidate for the job, the Financial Times said, citing two people briefed on the discussions. The newspaper is wrong, Musk tweeted in response, without elaborating.
Musk must relinquish his role as chairman under a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over his tweeting, which left open the possibility that the carmaker could appoint an existing independent director. Tesla and the SEC made a submission, asking the US District Court in Manhattan to accept the deal, according to a court filing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Tesla and the SEC have put aside tweets insulting the agency to ask a judge to accept a proposed settlement in a fraud suit against the electric carmaker and its outspoken CEO.
In a joint submission seeking judicial approval, the SEC, Tesla and Musk said the proposed deal — paying a combined $40 million to resolve claims that Musk misled the public by tweeting about his plan to take Tesla private — was in the “best interest” of investors, according to the court filing.
A few days after the September 29 settlement, Musk dubbed the SEC as the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” in a tweet, making the insult before trying to win court approval of the hardfought deal. Tesla rose 0.7 per cent from Wednesday’s US close to $258.70 at 9:31am on Frankfurt’s Tradegate.
Neither Tesla nor Musk admitted wrongdoing under the settlement, which was reached two days after the regulator sued the billionaire over his tweeted claims to have had the funding and investor support to buy out stockholders at $420 a share. —