Update: this news story has taken an unexpected turn.
Elon Musk’s mystery Tesla buyout funder is Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is the mystery funder that has offered to finance a deal to take Tesla private, Elon Musk wrote in a Monday morning blog post. The post lays to rest a mystery that has bedeviled Wall Street and the news media since Musk tweeted last Tuesday that he had "funding secured" for a buyout.
"Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private," Musk wrote in his Monday post. "They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil."In late July, the Saudis purchased almost five percent of Tesla's stock (acquiring more than five percent would have triggered public disclosure requirements). They then met with Musk on July 31 and reiterated their interest in funding a buyout.
"I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed," Musk said. He then met with Tesla's board and told them he was interested in taking Tesla private.
The next step, Musk said, was to approach Tesla's largest shareholders to see if they would be interested in continuing to hold shares in the new, private incarnation of Tesla. But he thought that all shareholders deserved to know about the proposal at the same time—hence his Tuesday tweet announcing his plan to go private.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/08/elon-musk-considering-using-saudi-oil-money-to-buy-out-tesla/ The high number of articles and stories in the news attacking Tesla and Elon Musk of late are strange. Its almost as if there is a FUD agenda against Elon Musk. He's receiving the same treatment bitcoin received when the only thing published in the mainstream media were stories about crypto currencies being a "safe haven" for money launderers, criminals and terrorists. And a unbelievably large amount of content claiming bitcoin was a bubble that was destined to pop.
Tesla's stock is a high stakes FUD game where some investors have literally bet billions of dollars the price of tesla stock would diminish.
In the past it has been revealed some of tesla's biggest haters are people who own large stakes in oil. This trend could carry over to crypto where many of its biggest haters appear to be oil investors who are upset that bitcoin mining gives a lot of business to competing energy sources like hydroelectric energy.