Elon Musk’s Effort to Take Tesla Private to Get Board Oversight
埃隆馬斯克的特斯拉私有計劃受到董事會監(jiān)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會成立了一個特別委員會，負(fù)責(zé)評估該公司首席執(zhí)行官埃隆?馬斯克可能提出的將該公司私有化的提議。
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.”
????????自從上周馬斯克出人意料地發(fā)布了一篇關(guān)于已獲得可能用于買斷特斯拉的資金擔(dān)保的神秘推文后，該公司董事會表示，尚未收到關(guān)于此事的正式提案，也并未達(dá)成關(guān)于此類交易可行性的任何結(jié)論。
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.
????????該公司表示，組成特別委員會的三位獨(dú)立董事 Brad Buss，Robyn Denholm 和 Linda Johnson Rice “擁有董事會的全部權(quán)力”來評估和談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.
????????該公司周二強(qiáng)調(diào)，“不能保證馬斯克先生的任何提議都會被采納”。
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 擔(dān)任了該特別委員會的法律顧問。該委員會計劃在收到正式提案后聘請獨(dú)立財務(wù)顧問。 該公司表示，它還單獨(dú)聘請了 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich ＆ Rosati 律師事務(wù)所作為此次事件的法律顧問。
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，馬斯克在推特上提到，他正在與 Silver Lake 和 Goldman Sachs 兩家公司合作，致力于一項(xiàng)將特斯拉私有化的提議。這兩家公司在該項(xiàng)目中擔(dān)任了財務(wù)顧問。他還寫道，他已經(jīng)聘請了 Wachtell，Lipton，Rosen＆ Katz 和 Munger，Tolles ＆ Olson 兩家律師事務(wù)所擔(dān)任法律顧問。
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.
????????據(jù)知情人士透露，Silver Lake 的目標(biāo)是通過投資特斯拉作為其潛在退市的一部分資金。而特斯拉退市所需資金總數(shù)目可能高達(dá)數(shù)百億美元。這兩位不愿透露姓名的人士表示，Silver Lake 不會因?yàn)樗鼛椭厮估?lián)合創(chuàng)始人的探索性選擇所做的任何工作而獲得好處。
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 是世界上最大的技術(shù)型私募股權(quán)投資者之一。其高管與馬斯克相識多年，且曾經(jīng)邀請馬斯克在其投資組合公司的年會上發(fā)表過至少一次演講。該公司的 Silver Lake Kraftwerk 部門已經(jīng)向馬斯克與他人共同創(chuàng)立的太陽能公司 SolarCity 投資了一億美元。該公司目前已經(jīng)并為特斯拉的一部分。
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.
????????這兩位知情人士不愿意透露何時 Silver Lake 將開始與馬斯克合作。該投資公司的一位發(fā)言人也拒絕就此事發(fā)表評論。
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.
????????自周一馬斯克在一篇博文中宣稱他曾與一家沙特主權(quán)財富基金就特斯拉私有化的事宜溝通了一年多后，特斯拉公司開始試圖從其不可預(yù)測的首席執(zhí)行官和聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人手中掌控局勢。馬斯克表示，他最近已經(jīng)與該基金進(jìn)行了一次會議，“毫無疑問”與該基金的交易協(xié)議能夠達(dá)成。但熟悉該基金運(yùn)作的人士周一對他的描述表示了懷疑。
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.
????????這篇博文似乎想要把投資者和金融家從看到他最初發(fā)送的那條推文后措手不及的狀態(tài)中解救出來。在8月7日的推文中馬斯克說到，“正在考慮以420美元每股的價格私有化特斯拉”。此類消息披露通常只在監(jiān)管文件中提出。該推文引發(fā)了美國證券交易委員會對于馬斯克選擇重要消息發(fā)布渠道的問詢。
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.
????????馬斯克在博客文章中表示，“正確的做法是向所有股東公開宣布我的意圖”。但據(jù)熟悉情況的人士透露，馬斯克告訴一位非正式顧問，他在推特上沖動地發(fā)布了推文以作為對該公司批評者的憤怒回應(yīng)。
By Tiffany Hsu
