Musk Scrapped Plans to Take Tesla Private, Following Ark Boss’ Wishes

• Elon Musk says he scrapped his plans to take Tesla private after hearing from investors like Cathie Wood.
• The Ark Invest boss sent the Tesla CEO a letter signaling small investors would love Tesla to remain publicly traded.
• Musk was testifying within the trial over a 2018 tweet saying he had funding to take Tesla private.

Elon Musk told a court he scrapped his plans to take Tesla private after getting a letter from Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood and hearing that investors would not just like the move.

The billionaire Tesla CEO said Tuesday he was seriously considering a buyout deal for the electric-vehicle maker for about two weeks, the BBC reported, but dropped the move after talking with key investors.

“I felt it was essential to be conscious of their wishes,” Musk said on his third day of testimony in the continued jury trial, sparked by a class-action shareholder lawsuit.

Asked whether he had heard from smaller investors, Musk said Wood”represents small investors,” MarketWatch reported. The Ark Invest CEO was amongst essentially the most influential folks that would favor Tesla to remain publicly listed, he said, because otherwise her funds couldn’t participate. 

The lawsuit on trial in San Francisco alleges Musk committed securities fraud. Some investors have accused Musk of illegally manipulating Tesla’s stock price via August 2018 tweets saying there was “funding secured” to take the carmaker private at $420 per share.

In the continued trial, Musk defended his tweet by saying it was not a joke, because he initially thought he had secured funding from Saudi Arabia’s Investment Fund. He also doesn’t imagine that his tweets necessarily move markets. 

“Simply because I tweet something doesn’t mean people imagine it or will act accordingly,” he said Friday.

Influential investor Wood has stayed bullish on Tesla at the same time as the stock has slid, recurrently loading up on the EV-maker’s shares in recent months, despite criticism of Musk as distracted by his purchase of Twitter.

She has predicted that Tesla would reach $500 a share by 2026, compared with $143.89 at Tuesday’s close.