Solar panels from Solarcity. (Photo: asharkyu / Shutterstock.com)
A group of Tesla shareholders claims that the acquisition of Solarcity, which Elon Musk made in 2016, was not in the interests of Tesla, but only in its private interests. In this context, it is important to know that Solarcity was founded in 2006 on a proposal by Musk. The company is run by the brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive, Musk’s cousins. Musk himself invested part of his assets in the then young company even before the takeover.
On Monday, Musk defended himself A Delaware court ruled Tesla’s decision to buy the solar panel company, arguing that it was a necessary decision not only for the two companies but also for the future of the world’s climate.
In doing so, he defended himself aggressively against questions from a lawyer who represented a group of shareholders who claimed that Musk was solely in his own interest and not in that of Tesla Investors traded when it got Tesla to buy Solarcity for $ 2.6 billion. As the Washington Post reports, Musk got personal again. “I think you are a bad person,” he said to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Randall Baron, when he asked about mistakes in the takeover.
Process output open
Musk argued that the controversial deal would ultimately pay off for shareholders as well as it would for the environment. The reason for this is Tesla’s focus on the solar energy business in the coming quarters.
Originally, the process should long since have been completed, was postponed by more than a year because of the pandemic. It is believed that the process will drag on for another two weeks. Should the judge then decide that Musk used his position at Tesla to push through the deal against the interests of the shareholders, he could face a repayment of up to two billion dollars of his own money to Tesla. From a financial point of view, that would be an easy undertaking for the billionaire, since his wealth is almost exclusively tied up in Tesla shares anyway. From a personal point of view, however, a judicial defeat would be a severe punishment for the businessman.
