*By Jeffrey Marcus*
Tesla's chairman and CEO Elon Musk escaped an attempt by some shareholders Tuesday to strip him of one of his jobs running the electric car company he founded 15 years ago. Musk will remain as chairman after he fended off an effort by an investor group to remove him and oust three board members loyal to him, including Musk's brother Kimbal.
The vote failed by a "super majority," the company said, which is not surprising. Any vote would take two-thirds to pass, and Musk himself reportedly owns one-fifth of the company's shares.
Other developments from the shareholders meeting include:
* Tesla announced plans to build a factory in China, a move that would allow the car company to avoid import tariffs there. The Chinese government recently announced it would allow electric car makers to own factories in China without a domestic partner. Tesla's head of global sales, Robin Ren, said the factory would be in Shanghai, and Musk said the factory would assemble cars and build batteries in the same place, [CNBC reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/tesla-talks-shanghai-factory-at-shareholder-meeting.html).
* With the help of a new third assembly line at the company's California factory, Musk said Tesla will likely be able to produce 5,000 Model 3 vehicles a week by the end of June. The plant is already producing an average of 3,500 week, he said, and the grueling months-long effort to ramp up production has been worth it. "It's been the most excruciating, hellish months I've maybe ever had, but I think we're getting there," Musk said [according to The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/business/tesla-once-a-wall-street-darling-faces-investor-challenge.html).
* Despite fatal crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot feature, the company is pressing ahead, even offering free trials for customers who are not certain they want to spend another $5,000 on a non-existent chauffeur, [Wired magazine](https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-shareholders-meeting/) reported.
* New models are on deck, including the all-wheel drive Model 3, expected to begin limited production later this year; the Model Y, which will go into production in 2020; and the semi truck and the new roadster expected around the same time.
* Musk did not lash out the way he did during Tesla's quarterly earnings call last month, when he antagonized analysts and institutional investors. But it was still an emotional shareholders meeting for Musk, who had his authority challenged and his vision questioned. He got a little choked up, [Reuters reported](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-shareholders/teslas-musk-says-quite-likely-will-meet-model-3-goal-directors-re-elected-idUSKCN1J12YT). "At Tesla we build our cars with love," Musk said. "At a lot of other companies, they're built by marketing or the finance department and there's no soul. We're not perfect, but we pour our heart and soul into it and we really care."
Watch [video](https://www.tesla.com/shareholdermeeting) of the full shareholders meeting on Tesla's website. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/elon-musk-lives-to-fight-another-day-as-chairman-of-tesla).
The nation's largest alcohol e-commerce and delivery platform is getting even bigger. Drizly is now collaborating with 7-Eleven to deliver alcohol in under 60 minutes from 7-eleven's 1,200 stores. The companies plan to expand the collaboration in the coming months. Cathy Lewenberg, COO at Drizly, joins Cheddar News to talk about the new collaboration.
Netlify, a platform that builds, deploys and hosts websites and apps, raised $105 million dollars in a Series D round, now valuing the company at $2 billion. Along with the funding, Netlify is also announcing the acquisition of the company OneGraph. Netlify says OneGraph's technology will drive a new wave of innovation on its platform, by making it easier to compose apps with the best developer tools available. Netlify co-founder and CEO Matt Biilmann joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chip Paucek, CEO and co-founder of 2U, an educational tech company, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to talk about the company's $800 million acquisition of online course provider edX featuring curriculum from Harvard and MIT. He noted that added services will provide 2U users with high quality, free options. "Us coming together with edX should allow us to really continue to drive affordability for people to unlock their own potential in a variety of different kinds of programs," he said.
Beginning Christmas Day, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and Sparks, the Staples Center, will go by the name Crypto.com Arena after a massive $700 million deal with AEG. Steven Kalifowitz, the chief marketing officer at Crypto.com, and Todd Goldstein, the chief revenue officer at AEG, joined Cheddar to talk about the historic changeover in naming rights and what other changes that fans entering the arena might expect.
Earlier this week, Qualcomm announced an extension of its partnership with BMW as it moves to help build the technology for automated driving. Nakul Duggal, general manager at Qualcomm, joined Cheddar to provide some background on the collaboration and how the company has been able to navigate the global chip shortage amid the pandemic. "We have invested in advance, in very specific packaging capacity and technology, with our suppliers so that we actually have the capacity available to be able to service that demand," Duggal said.
Small businesses are seeing loans in a new light thanks to the pandemic, according to a survey from PayPal and Wakefield research. The study found that the stigma surrounding accepting loans has largely been removed among a majority of small business owners who realize they are not a sign of a struggling business, but a way to stay competitive. Bernardo Martinez, VP of global merchant lending at PayPal, joined Cheddar to discuss the results of the survey and provide tips to owners looking to grow their businesses.
The iconic Los Angeles Staples Center will sport a new moniker, Crypto.com Arena, beginning Christmas Day. AEG made the naming-rights deal with Crypto for a historic $700 million.
Uber is gearing up to reintroduce its ride-sharing carpool service called Uber Pool, now renamed UberX Share, after shutting it down due to the pandemic. The company is currently piloting the revived program in Miami.
