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Six of Telsa's board members on Wednesday confirmed [1]they've met several times over the past week with CEO Elon Musk to discuss taking the company private.
The confirmation came a day after Musk first mentioned the idea publicly on Twitter, sending the stock market into a tizzy.
Also: Here's why Elon Musk wants Tesla to go private[2] CNET
Here's the statement from board members Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch:
Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private. This included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla's long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur. The board has met several times over the last week and is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this.
Two board members didn't sign the letter: Musk's brother Kimbal Musk and venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson.
The Tesla CEO's Tuesday tweet came seemingly out of nowhere.
In it, however, he made some eye-popping statements: Taking Tesla private at $420 a share would value the electric car company at around $70 billion, much higher than its current market cap. That price would also make the deal the biggest leveraged buyout ever. Meanwhile, Musk's statement that funding was "secured" raised questions about who would provide the funding and whether such information was being properly disclosed.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating [3]whether Musk's statements are true and why they were made via Twitter.