TSLA shares jump
It's a wild time in TSLA as shares are jumping after Elon Musk tweeted that he's considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share.
As Greg mentioned, shares were trading about $460 beforehand and jumped $12. One reason the shares haven't jumped more is because tweeting about a potential takeover before it happens is... odd.
First, it makes it tougher to complete because the share price should rise. Second, you have a question about material non-public information. Now, you could probably argue that Musk has just made it public.
Then again, he didn't say he was taking the deal, so all this really looks like is part of Musk's long-running battle with shorts.
If he were now not to accept the deal, this would probably create a massive legal headache. So why tweet about it at all if you aren't going to take it?
Another possibility is that his twitter account has been compromised. If it's a joke, he's in a lot of trouble.
Finally, we're talking about $80 billion here, which is a lot of money even for Elon Musk.
In separate and possibly-related news, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has accumulated 3%-5% of TSLA shares according to an FT report.
Update: And Musk just doubled down.
Update 2:
The second shoe drops as Musk says he won't be selling.
