Tesla board actively evaluating taking company private

Investors may have been shocked on Tuesday when Tesla’s CEO and founder Elon Musk tweeted about taking the company private, but according to certain board members they had already been discussing this with the billionaire chief executive.

Last week, Musk opened a discussion with the company’s board of directors about taking the electric automaker private, which included how funding would be obtained to make the transition, according to the board.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
TSLA	TESLA INC.	162.13	+17.52	+12.12%

“Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private,” members  of Tesla's board said in a statement. “This included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla’s long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur. The board has met several times over the last week and is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this.”

The statement was not made on behalf of the entire board. Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch signed the statement released Wednesday.

Tesla board member James Murdoch is CEO of 21st Century Fox, the parent company of FOX Business and Fox News.