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Tesla’s stock drove off a cliff after the SolarCity bid was announced

Stockholders aren’t immediate fans of the deal.

Asa Mathat

Elon Musk the Tesla CEO and Elon Musk the SolarCity chairman are probably pleased with the former company’s bid to buy the latter.

But Tesla investors aren’t. Shares of the electric vehicle company fell nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday following the announcement of the acquisition.

It could just be nerves. The proposed deal allows Tesla to buy up SolarCity’s common stock in exchange for its shares, amounting to about $2.8 billion for Tesla. And it also amounts to some strange accounting, given the management overlap between the two companies.

That math checks out: Musk picked up more shares of SolarCity yesterday, putting his total at 22.2 million shares. Tesla made the SolarCity offer at a range of $26.50 to $28.50 per share. Of course, Musk owns a fair amount of Tesla shares — just north of 27.8 million, or 20.8 percent of the company.

Wary investors have sent Tesla stocks on short free falls in the past, too, after a negative analyst report and a sour recommendation from Consumer Reports.


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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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