{"id":128650,"date":"2018-08-09T16:10:33","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T20:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=128650"},"modified":"2018-08-09T16:10:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T20:10:33","slug":"sec-amps-up-investigation-of-tesla-after-musks-buyout-tweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2018\/08\/sec-amps-up-investigation-of-tesla-after-musks-buyout-tweet\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Amps Up Investigation of Tesla After Musk’s Buyout Tweet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk's tweets about taking the company private and having the funding to do it has the SEC's attention.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Securities and Exchange Commission is ramping up its investigation of Tesla Inc. in light of CEO Elon Musk\u2019s recent tweets about taking the company private at $420 a share.<\/p>\n

More precisely, they are interested in his assertion that he already has the funding in place. According to a Bloomberg report, the SEC\u2019s San Francisco office was already investigating the company and the recent round of tweets escalated its interest.<\/p>\n

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News Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though it is not illegal for company officials to use twitter to promote Tesla, talking about potential buyout prices and issuing other proclamations that could artificially alter the California-based EV maker\u2019s stock price could be reason for an investigation and ultimately charges.<\/p>\n

The specific scope of the inquiry wasn\u2019t confirmed by the SEC. The key point right now is whether or not the information Musk tweeted is truthful or at least intended to be so when it was sent. Tesla hasn\u2019t offered up any more details on where or from whom the funding would come from.<\/p>\n

(Tesla board backs consideration of Musk’s\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>privatization plan. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One reason why there may be suspicion is the fact that many who follow the company have been speculating that it may need additional funding in the near-term to keep the Model 3 rolling down the line.<\/p>\n

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Biz reporter Liz Claman pushed Musk for answers about taking the company private.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, in the recent earnings call, Musk denied the company needs more money, saying it wouldn\u2019t be going back to the capital markets. Additionally, he was asked by an analyst asked if Tesla had received a notice from a regulator that would prevent the company from raising capital.<\/p>\n

Musk, who\u2019s insisted for months that the company wouldn\u2019t need to seek more funding this year, replied: \u201cI\u2019m not sure what you\u2019re talking about, but there\u2019s no such notice from a regulator.\u201d<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for details about Musk\u2019s plans to take the company private.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The CEO apparently has the preliminary backing of the company\u2019s board of directors, six of whom issued a statement yesterday saying that Musk broached the subject recently and they were considering its merits.<\/p>\n

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Musk's earlier tweets already had the SEC looking at the company.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They were considering his proposal and that they\u2019d met with him previously to explore the strategy, including \u201cdiscussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla’s long-term interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the board who signed the statement were Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch.\u00a0Two other the board members, Kimball Musk, Elon\u2019s brother, and\u00a0Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist, were not part of the statement.<\/p>\n

(To see more about Tesla\u2019s Q2 losses doubling, but profits promised in Q3,\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s plan would be to take the company private at $420 a share. Ideally, he said, everyone would come along for the ride and retain their ownership stake \u2014 a notion he reiterated in subsequent tweets; however, for those who don\u2019t want to, the price is a 20% over the share price on the day it reported its second quarter earnings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Securities and Exchange Commission is ramping up its investigation of Tesla Inc. in light of CEO Elon Musk\u2019s recent tweets about taking the company private at $420 a share.More precisely, they are interested in his assertion that he already has the funding in place. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":95241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,9],"tags":[],"make":[110],"post-state":[],"category_old":[150,151,155,299,163,132,125,297,207,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128650"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=128650"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=128650"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=128650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}