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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Musk Says 'Funding Secured' Claim Sparked by Saudi Meeting [bloomberg.com]

Elon Musk said interest from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund gave him the confidence to drop the bombshell last week that he was considering taking Tesla Inc. private. The Saudi Kingdom's Public Investment Fund had approached Musk going back almost two years about taking Tesla off the market, he wrote in a blog post [tesla.com] Monday, confirming that the fund recently bought an almost 5 percent stake. Musk described a July 31 meeting in which the Saudi fund's managing director expressed regret that Tesla hadn't moved forward with a go-private transaction.

[...] Several investors have since sued [bloomberg.com] Musk and Tesla, claiming the company's share price had been manipulated. The Securities and Exchange Commission is said to be intensifying its scrutiny [bloomberg.com] of the company and its chief executive officer after having started gathering general information about Tesla and Musk's earlier public pronouncements about manufacturing goals and sales targets.

One of Tesla's biggest critics, Vertical Group analyst Gordon Johnson, read Musk's blog post as a walk-back maneuver from his "funding secured" tweet last week. He cited Musk's statement Monday that the Saudi fund's support for taking Tesla private was "subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals." "He is specifically stating that funding is not secured, and I think that's a big deal," Johnson, whose $93 price target on Tesla shares is the lowest among Wall Street analysts, said on Bloomberg Television. "The question then becomes, what does the SEC do here, and do the shareholders stick with him?"

Also at CNBC [cnbc.com].

Previously: Elon Musk Considers Taking Tesla Private [soylentnews.org]

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