Elon Musk Tweeted that he had funding secured to take Tesla private 4 1/2 years ago. He is on trial for that now.
Elon Musk's Tweet
Here is the Tweet Elon Musk made about 4 1/2 years ago now, on August 7, 2018:
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
Elon Musk was hoping that all current investors at the time would remain with Tesla even if it was private. It would create a special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with Tesla. This was how SpaceX was being done with Fidelity.
Several prominent Tesla investors recommended that Elon Musk not do that due to there being hundreds of thousands of retail investors who had invested significant resources and risked investing in Tesla for the long-term. Dave Lee was one of these investors.
Though I understand your reasons, please don't take Tesla private. There are hundreds of thousands of retail investors who have placed significant resources and risk into investing into Tesla for the long-term and would not think it's fair.
— Dave Lee (@heydave7) August 7, 2018
Gali, another important Tesla investor strongly urged that Elon Musk not do this and it would have been said to see all those invested in Tesla miss out on the upsdie over the coming years.
Noooooo!!!! Still processing what this means, but would be sad to see all the investors who've been w/ $TSLA miss out on the upside over the next few years. Although if this helps the mission & Elon thinks it's smart, I understand and fully support
— Gali (@Gfilche) August 7, 2018
The Trial of Elon Musk
Those arguing for a guilty plea for Elon Musk say that the "funding secured" Tweets were reckless and cost "regular people" millions of dollars while Musk's attorney's are saying that they were inconsequential.
There is also an argument being made that there was no plan to take Tesla private as confirmed by a subsequent investigation by the SEC and that the initial Tweet was sent without advance notice to Tesla's board.
Elon Musk and his lawyer argued that Elon didn't want to take Tesla private and that funding wasn't going to be an issue until investors in Saudi Arabia had backed out. They said that Elon had simply chosen his words in a poor manner when making the Tweet.
Regardless of what happens, it will be interesting to see the result of this trial. What do you think will happen to Elon Musk? Will he get fined or will there be some other outcome?
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