US top electric automaker Tesla has said some members of its Board of Directors discussed the possibility of making Tesla private with its CEO Elon Musk. In a statement by the company, six Board members said Elon Musk brought up the proposal to them on making Tesla private and how to achieve its long-term interests as a private company, Xinhua news agency reported.
"Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private. 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," said the Board members.
Tesla said the statement was made by members Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice, and James Murdoch, but Kimbal Musk, Elon's brother, and venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who are also on the Board of Directors, were not on the list of the signatory members.
The six members said the Board has "met several times over the last week and is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this." Their statement came less than a day after Tesla CEO Musk announced on Twitter that he wants to take Tesla private.
In an email to all Tesla employees earlier, Musk said he is going to take Tesla private in the future at a price of $420 per share. "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, and where there is as little change for all of our investors, including all of our employees, as possible," he said.
"As the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company," Musk noted. The Tesla CEO said in a Twitter post that his plan for a privatised Tesla has been supported by investors.
"Investor support is confirmed. The only reason why this is not certain is that it's contingent on a shareholder vote," he tweeted. Tesla, which was founded in 2003, launched its initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ on June 29, 2010, and the IPO raised $226 million for the company. It currently has a market value of $61 billion, and at a share price of $420, the company would be worth around $71.6 billion.
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