Tesla directors discuss going private
Board says it had several meetings with Elon Musk about long-term interests
When Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk told the world on Tuesday that he was considering taking the electric carmaker private, he surprised pretty much everyone.
Everyone, that is, except Tesla’s board of directors.
On Wednesday, six of Tesla’s independent directors issued a statement saying they have had talks with Musk about his idea to take the company private at a stock price of $420 a share. If Tesla’s shares get that high, the company would have a market capitalization of about $71 billion.
“Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private,” said the directors in their statement. “This included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla’s long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur.”
The statement, which was posted on Tesla’s investor relations site, was attributed to independent board members Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch. In addition to Elon Musk, Tesla’s other
directors are his brother, Kimbal Musk, who has recused himself from the discussions, and investor Steve Jurvetson, who is on a leave of absence from his Tesla board duties.
Musk said Tuesday in a blog post that while a final decision on Tesla going private had not yet been made, “if the process ends the way I expect it will, a private Tesla would ultimately be an enormous opportunity for all of us,” meaning Tesla and its shareholders.
The Tesla board members also said in their brief statement that they have met several times over the last week and are “taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this” matter of going private.