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Bloomberg
Elon Musk continued to drip feed details of his controversial plan to take Tesla Inc. private, saying that he’s getting advice from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and private-equity firm Silver Lake.
In a tweet, the electric-car maker’s chief executive officer said he’s also lined up legal advisers for the possible transaction. A Tesla spokesman said Musk’s tweet refers to his own advisers and attorneys.
Tesla board members didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Controversy has swirled around Musk’s plan since the moment he announced it in a tweet a week ago, with some investors and lawyers questioning his claim to have secured funding for the move.
Musk’s tweet about taking Tesla private hadn’t been cleared ahead of time with the company’s board, the New York Times reported, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinising his statements.
Musk revealed that Saudi Arabia has long been interested in taking Tesla private, which gave him the confidence last week to tweet that he was considering the blockbuster deal.
He also confirmed the country’s Public Investment Fund recently bought an almost 5 percent stake and is interested in helping take Tesla private, as Bloomberg News reported.
The posts prolong Musk’s piecemeal approach to explaining how he’ll pull off a privatisation of his money-losing automaker at a more than
$70 billion market capitalisation. Since the 47-year-old dropped that bombshell, he’s used social media to sporadically update investors stuck in an information vacuum.