Elon Musk’s short-lived effort to take Tesla Inc. private after his infamous “funding secured” tweet in August 2018 has loomed over the billionaire’s reputation — and his quest to buy Twitter Inc.
Now, a series of text messages that Musk exchanged with Silicon Valley friends, investors and the managing director of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund during that saga have come to light as part of an ongoing shareholder lawsuit. The texts provide a window into Musk’s thinking as he once again tries — nearly four years later — to take a publicly traded company private.
In one text message exchange with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of the Saudi PIF, an angry Musk discusses a Bloomberg News article that reported the fund was “said to be in talks” to take Tesla private.
