Musk Tells SolarCity Trial Tesla Would 'Die' If He Weren't CEO

By The Financial District
Jul 13, 2021
2 min read

Elon Musk insisted in court that Tesla Inc.'s board controls the company but also said the electric vehicle maker would "die" if he wasn't the chief executive, as he ended his first day of testimony on Monday in defense of Tesla's 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, Tom Hals and Sierra Jackson reported for Reuters.

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The lawsuit by union pension funds and asset managers alleges the celebrity CEO strong-armed Tesla's board of directors into depleting the company’s assets with the $2.6 billion all-stock deal for SolarCity.

Musk, at that time, owned a roughly 22% stake in both Tesla and SolarCity, which was founded by his cousins, and some Tesla shareholders alleged the deal was aimed at bailing out Musk's investment in the solar panel company.

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Kicking off a two-week trial in Wilmington, Delaware, Musk, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and a slightly askew dark tie, testified that he has tried "very hard not to be the CEO of Tesla, but I have to or frankly, Tesla is going to die.” Board members and others involved in the deal will testify beginning as soon as Tuesday when Musk will also return to the witness stand.

The lawsuit accuses Musk of dominating the board's deal discussions, pushing Tesla to pay more for SolarCity and misleading shareholders about the company's deteriorating financial health. Musk told the court that the Tesla board handled the SolarCity deal and he was not part of the board committee that negotiated the terms.

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"I don't even know what happened," he testified. Musk responded calmly during cross-examination from shareholder attorney Randall Baron, but Baron's yes or no questions often elicited lengthy, meandering responses. At one point Musk called the lawyer "a bad human being."

Baron asked if the board vetted his Technoking title, which he gave himself in March. “It generated a whole bunch of free press and Tesla doesn’t advertise and it’s helpful to general sales,” he said. He called the title a joke: “I think I’m funny.”

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