We may never know for sure if Elon Musk’s quixotic attempt to take Tesla private was more than a half-baked tweet. But the latest Tesla soap opera appears to be over as the company has officially announced it will remain public.
We may never know for sure if Elon Musk’s quixotic attempt to take Tesla private was more than a half-baked tweet. But the latest Tesla soap opera appears to be over as the company has officially announced it will remain public.
Of course, whether that ends the reported securities investigations into Musk’s actions remains to be seen.
In a statement released late Friday, Musk revealed how little forethought had gone into the plan when he explained all the things he has been doing since he tweeted about the idea earlier this month. Since that tweet touched off a frenzy, Musk has been scrambling to do the things that one typically does well in advance of announcing such a scheme, like talking to investors and the board and figuring out where the $72 billion might come from.
Musk wrote:
And:
Yes, the months it would take, if not years, would be a major distraction for the CEO. Duh.
In his message, Musk said he came to this conclusion and informed the board Friday and they totally agreed staying public was the right thing to do. No doubt, board members will be spending a much more relaxed weekend.
However, the choas surrounding the announcements brought about an investigation by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk originally claimed he had funding secured for the deal, but that later seemed not to be the case. It was also unclear whether some of the advisors Musk said were helping with the deal were really, in fact, helping with the deal.
The big losers in all of this, alas, are We the Media. Musk’s early August tweet was a gift to us, coming during what is normally the slowest, dullest part of the news years. Instead, this year we had the Cirque du Tesla to get us through the news desert.
There was Musk’s near-tearful interview with the New York Times, which will long be remembered as a bizarro classic. And then there were the pure WTF moments like disclosure about the deal coming from a rapper who was spending the weekend with Musk and his girlfriend.
With a week left in this month, what, or what, shall we write about now?
So, with heavy hearts, we say goodbye to this madness. Life will be calmer now. At least until Musk starts tweeting again.
