Clearly, Mr. Musk needs to get as many of Tesla’s biggest shareholders as possible to exchange their public shares for private ones. Some big institutional investors hold Tesla shares in index funds, and would most likely sell in the event of a deal. Mr. Musk suggested that financing was secured for the deal when he sent his Twitter message on Aug. 7. In his blog post, Mr. Musk elaborated, saying that he had been discussing taking Tesla private with the Saudis for nearly two years. And Mr. Musk, a billionaire, could draw on his broad network of relationships and companies, including SpaceX.

Source: New York Times August 23, 2018 18:11 UTC