Tesla Receives Subpoena Over Elon Musk Privatisation Tweets
Elon Musk’s itchy fingers appear to have landed him in hot water once again, after posting a Tweet saying he was considering taking Tesla private. The social media post saw the electric car company’s value soar as share prices spiked by ten per cent off the back of it. However, the proverbial hit the fan when it emerged that neither Musk nor Tesla had actually secured the funding needed to come off the stock exchange.
That was on August 7 and since then the US Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed Tesla based on information given by one individual close to the case. The SEC has been forced to act after two putative class-action suits were filed against the company.
The reason: Mr Musk’s funding claims are alleged to have been of the misleading sort - something the SEC doesn’t look kindly on. Bob Pozen, formerly of the SEC, is quoted by The Financial Times as saying: “From the SEC’s point of view, it’s one thing if he (Musk) has spoken rationally…But we can’t allow somebody to say they have something nailed down for this big a transaction and then they haven’t.”
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
So what next? In the meantime, Musk has tried to clear up the confusion, and apparently show people how serious he actually is about going private by claiming to be working with Goldman Sachs, private equity company Silver Lake and others.
Teslas’ board of directors is also understood to have sought legal advice and will retain their independent financial adviser to assess any potential Musk plan.
By Jason Craig
Comments
Musk really does seem to be the Trump of the car world.
I honestly think the guy gets a bad rap. I mean, yea he has his moments, but most are probably out of sheer frustration.
Am I still the only one who thinks Twitter is childish/unprofessional to begin with? Seems like more often than not it does more harm than good anyway… especially when it comes to world leaders, celebrities, and business moguls.
When you’ve watched enough suits to fully understand this topic
Sounds like they are actually serious about it… So not really misleading
Let’s face it though, the stupid people are the ones that make financial decisions based off tweets
Am i the only one that had to google subpoena?
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Twitter fingers
I’ll need a chat with a lawyer and/or businessman before I can understand what’s going on here. So Musk wanted to buy his company off the shareholders or something? But then didn’t have enough money to do so? Other than him being broke, I don’t see the problem here.