Tesla Inc. stock was down in the first morning of trading since Chief Executive Elon Musk announced that the electric carmaker would remain a publicly traded firm, capping a 2 {-week saga.
On Friday night, Musk said in a post on Tesla's website that major shareholders told the Palo Alto automaker it was "better off as a public company" and encouraged him to call off his plan to take Tesla private. Musk also said he met with Tesla's board of directors Thursday, whose members "indicated that they agree."
Tesla stock was down 2.3 percent at $315.38 shortly before 10 a.m. PDT Monday.
Musk tweeted Aug. 7 that he was "considering taking Tesla private" at $420 a share and that he had "funding secured." But questions soon arose about who would supply that funding and just how secured it was.
Musk later said his tweet about funding was based on meetings with Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund that left him "with no question" that they could strike a deal. But he also said the Saudi support was "subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals," among other conditions.
