Tesla privatisation abandoned

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said late yesterday he would heed shareholder concerns and no longer pursue a $72 billion deal to take his US electric car maker private, abandoning an idea that had stunned investors and drawn regulatory scrutiny.

The decision leaves Tesla as a publicly listed company but raises new questions about its future. Its shares have been trading below their Aug. 7 levels, when Musk announced on Twitter he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 per share, as investors wondered what the long-shot bid meant for Musk’s ability to steer the company to profitability.

The move also leaves Musk and Tesla having to fend off a series of investor lawsuits and a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the factual accuracy of Musk’s tweet that funding for the deal was “secured”.