U.S. top electric auto maker Tesla said Wednesday that some members of its Board of Directors discussed the possibility of making Tesla private with its CEO Elon Musk last week.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, six Board members said Elon Musk brought up the proposal to them on making Tesla private and how to achieve its long-term interests as a private company.
"Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private. This included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla's long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur," said the Board members.
Tesla said the statement was made by members Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice, and James Murdoch, but Kimbal Musk, Elon's brother, and venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who are also on the Board of Directors, were not on the list of the signatory members.
The six members said the Board has "met several times over the last week and is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this."
Their statement came less than a day after Tesla CEO Musk announced on Twitter Tuesday that he wants to take Tesla private.
In an email to all Tesla employees earlier Tuesday, Musk said he is going to take Tesla private in the future at a price of 420 U.S. dollars per share.
"I'm trying to accomplish an outcome where Tesla can operate at its best, free from as much distraction and short-term thinking as possible, and where there is as little change for all of our investors, including all of our employees, as possible," he said.
"As the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company," Musk noted.
The Tesla CEO said in a Twitter post Tuesday that his plan for a privatized Tesla has been supported by investors.
"Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that it's contingent on a shareholder vote," he tweeted.
Tesla, which was founded in 2003, launched its initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ on June 29, 2010, and the IPO raised 226 million dollars for the company.
It currently has a market value of 61 billion U.S. dollars, and at a share price of 420 dollars, the company would be worth around 71.6 billion dollars.
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