Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk announced in a blog post that his company will remain public.
The post reads in part, “Our investors are extremely important to me. Almost all have stuck with us from the time we went public in 2010 when we had no cars in production and only a vision of what we wanted to be. They believe strongly in our mission to advance sustainable energy and care deeply about our success. I worked with Silver Lake, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), 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…Given the feedback I’ve received, it’s apparent that most of Tesla’s existing shareholders believe we are better off as a public company…I knew the process of going private would be challenging, but it’s clear that it would be even more time-consuming and distracting than initially anticipated…After considering all of these factors, I met with Tesla’s Board of Directors yesterday and let them know that I believe the better path is for Tesla to remain public. The Board indicated that they agree.”
