Elon Musk tweets that he might take Tesla private, sending shares into a tizzy


Elon Musk riled up the stock market on Tuesday, tweeting that he was thinking of taking Tesla private at $420 per share, "funding secured."
Shares of the electric car company skyrocketed 7.4 percent as the CEO's message sunk in, CNBC reports. Then trading was brought to a halt.
Tesla's shares had already spiked Tuesday thanks to reports of new investment in the company, per CNBC. The post-tweet frenzy sent shares as high as $371.15, and trading was eventually halted at $367 per share.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Musk soon tweeted again to sort of clear up the situation, saying shareholders could either sell at $420 or hold their shares as Tesla went private. He hopes all current investors stay with Tesla even if it goes private, Musk tweeted, but "will ensure their prosperity in any scenario."
Musk recently hinted at a rejection of Wall Street, saying Tesla "would not be raising equity at any point" during a call to analysts Wednesday, per the Los Angeles Times. Tesla is worth $61 billion, and going private at $420 per share would lock the company's valuation at $71.3 billion. Musk expects the company to be profitable in 2018's third quarter, despite reporting a record loss of $718 million in the second quarter last week.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
China and Taiwan's war of words ahead of anniversary parade
Under The Radar Neighbours both claim to have led the fighting during World War Two
-
Epstein files: Maxwell courts a pardon
Feature A new prison transcript shows Ghislaine Maxwell praising Trump as 'a gentleman' while denying his involvement in the Epstein scandal
-
Pentagon readies military deployment in Chicago
Feature The Pentagon is preparing to deploy thousands of Illinois National Guard members to Chicago after Trump threatened to send troops into other major cities
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year