Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he would heed shareholder concerns and no longer pursue a $72-billion deal to take the U.S. electric car maker private, abandoning an idea that had stunned investors and drawn regulatory scrutiny.
The decision leaves Tesla as a publicly listed company but raises new questions about its future. Its shares have been trading below their August 7 levels, when Mr. Musk announced on Twitter he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 per share, as investors wondered what the long-shot bid meant for Mr. Musk’s ability to steer the company to profitability.
The move also leaves Mr. Musk and Tesla having to fend off a series of investor lawsuits and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the accuracy of Mr. Musk’s tweet that funding for the deal was “secured.” He attributed his decision to abandon the bid to shareholder feedback.
