Tesla Board May Ask Elon Musk To Recuse Himself From Privatization Process

Elon Musk surprised many people Tuesday when he proposed on his Twitter account to make his electric car manufacturing company Tesla a privately held business, instead of its shares being traded on the stock market. The announcement sent Tesla stock price into a tizzy, invited scrutiny from the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), and will likely lead to a board meeting in the coming week to work out the formal process to assess the proposal — a process Musk would likely be asked to not be a part of.

Tesla’s board of directors has nine members, including Musk, and six of them (excluding Musk) issued a statement Wednesday in which they said the board has met several times since Musk first brought up the idea sometime last week. According to a report by CNBC, the board has plans to meet with the company’s financial advisors in the coming week to evaluate Musk’s public proposal to privatize the company at $420 a share.

As the process gets underway, it is likely Musk would be asked to recuse himself from it, to avoid potential conflict of interest. The Tesla CEO owns about 20 percent stake in the company, and has been asked by the board to hire his own advisors for looking into the possible going-private deal, CNBC reported citing sources. The board would also appoint independent directors to a special committee that will study the details of the proposed shareholder buyout.

Musk also said he hoped “*all* current investors remain with Tesla even if we’re private” and that he was “super appreciative of Tesla shareholders.”

In an email he sent to Tesla staff that was posted on the company’s blog, Musk also said the company may go public again “in the future, once Tesla enters a phase of slower, more predictable growth.” He used SpaceX (his commercial space venture, for those who don’t know) as an example of how a privately-held company can operate efficiently since it doesn’t have any stock market expectations to meet.

Shares of Tesla closed at $352.45 on Nasdaq at close of trade Thursday, falling almost 5 percent during the day, though they gained 1.6 percent during after-hours trade. Thursday’s closing price was about $10 higher than when Musk made the announcement Tuesday, and in between, it climbed as high as almost $380. Even if considering a price of $360, Musk’s proposed buyout value offers over 16 percent premium to existing shareholders who may decide to sell.

The fall on Thursday was triggered by the SEC’s decision to probe Musk’s tweets, as well as by the lack of clarity on where Tesla would get the approximately $71 billion it would need to implement Musk’s plan. While Musk first said the funding had been “secured,” he later said “investor support is confirmed,” leaving analysts doubtful about the source of money for what would be, if successful, the largest leveraged buyout in history.