Musk Abandons Dreams Of Petro-Dollars Propelled Private Tesla

The shares in Tesla Inc plunged by 3 per cent after Chief Executive Elon Musk announced in a company blog post that he has shelved plans to take the electric car maker private, Reuters has reported.

Elon Musk had earlier said that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund has approached him multiple times in the last two years offering to provide financial support to take Tesla Inc private.

In a blog post published on the company’s website last Friday, Musk mooted that based on his deliberations with Silver Lake, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley he understood that most of Tesla's existing shareholders were opposed to the deal.

“I worked with Silver Lake, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who have world-class expertise in these matters, to consider the many factors that would come into play in taking Tesla private, and to process all the incoming interest that we received from investors to fund a go-private transaction. I also spent considerable time listening to current shareholders, large and small, to understand what they think would be in the best long-term interests of Tesla.” Musk wrote in the blog.

Tesla is potentially facing a series of investor lawsuits and investigation by US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation over the veracity of Musk’s tweet claiming that funding for the buyout deal was "secured".