Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-11-18)

BloombergBusinessweek November18, 2019

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AnacquisitionMusksawasthefinalpiece

ofhisenergyempirehasbecomethetopthreat

toTesla’sfuture

Edited by

Jeff Muskus

Elon’s Solar

Flare-Up

2 T E C H N O L O G Y

Duringa heateddepositionthispastJune,ElonMusk

finallyseemedtoadmitthathisharshestcriticswere

right. Sinceforcingthroughthecontroversial 2016

purchaseofSolarCityCorp.,thestrugglingsolar

sales-and-installationbusinessheco-foundedwith

hiscousins,TeslaInc.’schiefexecutiveofficerhas

faced almost-constant criticism: The move was called

a catastrophe for Tesla, a $2 billion-plus bailout of a

debt-saddled company of which Musk himself was

chairmanandthelargestshareholder.Despiteplum-

metingsalesandsubstantiallayoffsinthesolardivi-

sionunderTeslaafterthemerger,Muskhasfervently

defended the SolarCity acquisition, once calling it

“blindingly obvious” and a “no-brainer.”

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