After publicly trailing plans to de-list Tesla and take it private, Tesla founder Elon Musk has met with the board and decided that the company should stay public.
Musk said in a note published in his blog that he met the Tesla board and 'let them know that I believe the better path is for Tesla to remain public. The Board indicated that they agree.'
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He also said he'd worked with Silver Lake, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley 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'. He also said he had 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 acknowledged that the feedback suggested most of Tesla's existing shareholders 'believe we are better off as a public company'. Additionally, he said, a number of institutional shareholders explained that they have internal compliance issues that limit how much they can invest in a private 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,' Musk admitted in the note, adding: 'This is a problem because we absolutely must stay focused on ramping Model 3 and becoming profitable. We will not achieve our mission of advancing sustainable energy unless we are also financially sustainable.'
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