Elon Musk’s Effort to Take Tesla Private to Get Board Oversight

埃隆马斯克的特斯拉私有计划受到董事会监督

Tesla announced Tuesday that its board had created a special committee to review a potential proposal by Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, to take the company private.

        特斯拉周二宣布其董事会成立了一个特别委员会，负责评估该公司首席执行官埃隆•马斯克可能提出的将该公司私有化的提议。

The board, caught by surprise last week after Mr. Musk posted a cryptic tweet about having “funding secured” for a possible buyout of the electric carmaker, said that it had yet to receive a formal proposal or reach “any conclusion as to the advisability or feasibility of such a transaction.”

        自从上周马斯克出人意料地发布了一篇关于已获得可能用于买断特斯拉的资金担保的神秘推文后，该公司董事会表示，尚未收到关于此事的正式提案，也并未达成关于此类交易可行性的任何结论。

The three independent directors who make up the special committee, Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm and Linda Johnson Rice, “have the full power and authority” of the board to evaluate and negotiate any potential transaction to take Tesla private, the company said.

        该公司表示，组成特别委员会的三位独立董事 Brad Buss，Robyn Denholm 和 Linda Johnson Rice “拥有董事会的全部权力”来评估和谈判任何可能使特斯拉私有化的交易。

The company stressed Tuesday that “no assurances can be given” that any proposal from Mr. Musk would be accepted.

        该公司周二强调，“不能保证马斯克先生的任何提议都会被采纳”。

Tesla said that Latham & Watkins was serving as legal counsel to the special committee, which plans to bring on an independent financial adviser once it receives a formal proposal. The company said it separately hired the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati “as legal counsel in this matter.”

        特斯拉表示，Latham & Watkins 担任了该特别委员会的法律顾问。该委员会计划在收到正式提案后聘请独立财务顾问。 该公司表示，它还单独聘请了 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich ＆ Rosati 律师事务所作为此次事件的法律顾问。

On Monday night, Mr. Musk posted on Twitter that he was working with Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs as financial advisers on a proposal to take Tesla private. He also wrote that he had hired two law firms — Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katzand Munger, Tolles & Olson — as legal advisers.

        周一晚上，马斯克在推特上提到，他正在与 Silver Lake 和 Goldman Sachs 两家公司合作，致力于一项将特斯拉私有化的提议。这两家公司在该项目中担任了财务顾问。他还写道，他已经聘请了 Wachtell，Lipton，Rosen＆ Katz 和 Munger，Tolles ＆ Olson 两家律师事务所担任法律顾问。

Silver Lake’s aim is to invest in the carmaker as part of its potential delisting, which could be worth tens of billions of dollars, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The firm isn’t going to be paid for any work it does to help the Tesla co-founder explore his options, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations.

        据知情人士透露，Silver Lake 的目标是通过投资特斯拉作为其潜在退市的一部分资金。而特斯拉退市所需资金总数目可能高达数百亿美元。这两位不愿透露姓名的人士表示，Silver Lake 不会因为它帮助特斯拉联合创始人的探索性选择所做的任何工作而获得好处。

Senior executives of Silver Lake, one of the biggest technology-focused private-equity investors, have known Mr. Musk for years and have had him speak at an annual meeting of its portfolio companies on at least one occasion. An arm of the firm, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, had invested $100 million in SolarCity, the solar-power company that Mr. Musk co-founded and is now part of Tesla.

        Silver Lake 是世界上最大的技术型私募股权投资者之一。其高管与马斯克相识多年，且曾经邀请马斯克在其投资组合公司的年会上发表过至少一次演讲。该公司的 Silver Lake Kraftwerk 部门已经向马斯克与他人共同创立的太阳能公司 SolarCity 投资了一亿美元。该公司目前已经并为特斯拉的一部分。

The people wouldn’t say when Silver Lake began working with Mr. Musk on his plan. A spokeswoman for the investment firm declined to comment.

        这两位知情人士不愿意透露何时 Silver Lake 将开始与马斯克合作。该投资公司的一位发言人也拒绝就此事发表评论。

Tesla’s efforts to wrest the situation from its unpredictable chief executive and co-founder come after Mr. Musk declared in a blog post on Monday that he had communicated for more than a year with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund about taking the company private. He said he had left one recent meeting “with no question” that a deal with the fund could be closed, though people familiar with the workings of the fund cast doubt on his account on Monday.

        自周一马斯克在一篇博文中宣称他曾与一家沙特主权财富基金就特斯拉私有化的事宜沟通了一年多后，特斯拉公司开始试图从其不可预测的首席执行官和联合创始人手中掌控局势。马斯克表示，他最近已经与该基金进行了一次会议，“毫无疑问”与该基金的交易协议能够达成。但熟悉该基金运作的人士周一对他的描述表示了怀疑。

The blog post appeared to be an attempt to address investors and financiers who were caught off guard by his initial tweet, on Aug. 7, announcing that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420.” Such disclosures are usually made in regulatory filings; the tweet led to an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission about Mr. Musk’s choice of forum.

        这篇博文似乎想要把投资者和金融家从看到他最初发送的那条推文后措手不及的状态中解救出来。在8月7日的推文中马斯克说到，“正在考虑以420美元每股的价格私有化特斯拉”。此类消息披露通常只在监管文件中提出。该推文引发了美国证券交易委员会对于马斯克选择重要消息发布渠道的问询。

In his blog post, Mr. Musk said that “the right thing to do was to announce my intentions publicly” to all shareholders. But according to people familiar with the situation, Mr. Musk told an informal adviser that he had posted on Twitter impulsively and as an angry reaction to the company’s critics.

        马斯克在博客文章中表示，“正确的做法是向所有股东公开宣布我的意图”。但据熟悉情况的人士透露，马斯克告诉一位非正式顾问，他在推特上冲动地发布了推文以作为对该公司批评者的愤怒回应。

By Tiffany Hsu