Elon Musk was facing mounting pressure on Wednesday over claims that he has already completed the main steps for a $70bn buyout of Tesla, after the carmaker’s board indicated the proposal was only in the early stages of being considered.
The Tesla boss took to Twitter the day before to claim that financial backing for a deal had been “ secured” and suggested that only one formal step was needed to complete it. “Only reason why this is not certain is that it’s contingent on a shareholder vote,” Mr Musk tweeted.
However, a statement by six of the company’s directors early on Wednesday indicated that Mr Musk had only “opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private” last week. It went on to say the board was “taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate it”.