WILMINGTON, July 13 — Elon Musk will return to the witness stand today for a second day to defend Tesla Inc’s US$2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, a deal that shareholders say benefited the CEO at the electric vehicle maker’s expense.
Musk at the time owned a 22 per cent stake in both Tesla and SolarCity, which was founded by his cousins. The Tesla shareholders want Musk to be ordered to return the value of the deal to Tesla. The two-week trial in the Court of Chancery in Wilmington, Delaware, is being overseen by Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights, who will decide the outcome in a written opinion, likely months after the trial ends.
Yesterday, Musk insisted the Tesla board handled the SolarCity deal and said that he was not part of the committee that negotiated the terms.Musk said he did not set pay for directors or have the ability to fire or hire them. He also said that because he owned the same percentage of stock in both companies and there was no cash involved in the deal, he didn’t benefit. He said the merger was aimed at combining Tesla’s battery business with SolarCity’s sustainable energy generation.