Newly unsealed court documents show why a number of large Tesla investors, including some pension funds, believe its $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity in 2016 never should have happened, CNBC informed.
The documents are an opening brief in a shareholders’ lawsuit against Tesla over the acquisition, but were previously heavily redacted. Legal transparency advocates PlainSite published a fuller version of the documents on Monday.
Shareholders are accusing Tesla of improperly valuing the SolarCity deal, providing flawed analysis and misleading investors, among other things.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2016, is one of many facing Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, including a lawsuit from Walmart over solar installations that caught fire on the rooftops of some stores, at least two wrongful death lawsuits filed after drivers died while using Autopilot, and a defamation lawsuit against Musk from cave rescue hero Vernon Unsworth after the CEO called him a pedophile on Twitter and in e-mails to a reporter.
Tesla said in a statement to CNBC, “These allegations are based on the claims of plaintiff’s lawyers looking for a payday, and are not representative of our shareholders who support our mission and ultimately voted in favor of the acquisition.”
“The accusations made in the plaintiff’s brief are false and misleading, as Tesla and SolarCity published all material information in its proxy and other public filings for all shareholders to consider before deciding on the transaction,” the company said. “Providing clean, renewable energy generation through solar has been a critical part of our mission ever since 2006, and our acquisition of SolarCity has enabled and continues to enable a significantly faster path to achieve our goals.”
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