*By Bridgette Webb and Amanda Weston*
Tesla's board is going ahead with its review of Elon Musk’s gambit to take the company private, though there's still lots of skepticism around the deal and its various backers.
"We still don't know who the backer is and what the deal structure will end up looking like," said Christian Prenzler, vice president of business development at Teslarati. "I definitely wouldn't bet against the deal's existence or the gravity it brings to what we know as Tesla on the NASDAQ."
Musk's plan, announced on Twitter on Tuesday, would take the electric carmaker private at a price of $420 a share. He's argued that Tesla would be less disruptive as a private company. It would also allow the company to escape the glaring spotlight of fluctuating stock prices, mounting questions on model 3 production goals and quarterly reports.
Investors may see an upside in such a move, according to Prenzler, and a number of potential backers have been rumored, including the Saudi Wealth Fund, Tencent and Softbank.
"It’s being pitched like an investment in a company like Uber," Prenzler said. "It’s a long-term plan. They’re betting on Musk making a million cars in a year. "
Still, Prenzler sees value in keeping Tesla public.
"It’s very healthy for a company to be public, to be under the public eye, to have a lot of accountability. And to be forced into really revealing a lot of information and going into some of these rough times," Prenzler said.
Jason Moser, an analyst at The Motley Fool, said in a separate interview with Cheddar that Musk's ambitions require "extremely long-term thinking," and may be more suitable for a private company.
"In order to be as successful as possible, I think he would rather be able to run this business without being held to sort of arbitrary guidelines perhaps that Wall Street throws out there on a quarterly basis," Moser said.
SpaceX, another one of Musk's companies, has been able to function out of the spotlight, allowing Musk to execute long-term planning.
"With Tesla, I love what he's doing. I think the world needs more of what they're doing, and I think that getting out of the public scrutiny and public markets would probably give him the best opportunity to go ahead and execute that," Moser said.
Like Prenzler, Moser thinks that Musk will get his way, eventually.
"When he wants something, he can get it because he's relentless," said Moser. "He keeps at it until he figures out a way, so if he really wants to take this business private, and it sounds like he does, I don't think he's going to have a problem getting there."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-next-era-for-tesla).
The largest tech convention in the world kicks off this week. CES, organized by the Consumer Technology Association, will run from Wednesday Jan. 5 through Friday Jan. 7, featuring more than 2,000 exhibitors showing off their latest tech products in Las Vegas. Ian Sherr, editor at large at CNET, gives a first look at some of the biggest trends expected this year.
Verizon and AT&T have agreed to delay the launch of their 5G networks for two weeks following pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration, airline companies and even Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The aviation industry is concerned the 5G rollout could bring technical challenges or safety concerns on top of the current disruptions they're already dealing with from COVID and severe weather. Hugh Odom, founder and president of Vertical Consultants and former AT&T attorney, discusses how the Biden administration was able to come to this agreement with the wireless carriers.
Angelo Zino, Senior Industry Analyst & Vice President at CFRA Research, breaks down the tech giants' valuation milestone and discusses the areas of Apple's business that could see further growth.
General Motors rolled out the newest addition to its EV fleet with the all-electric Silverado pickup truck. Deborah Wahl, chief marketing officer at GM, joined Cheddar to talk about the latest EV offering and how it matches up to its past gas-powered versions. She said she expects demand to soar after the "first-level truck" sold out in just 12 minutes and talked about steps GM plans to take to regain its title as top U.S. auto seller after being dethroned by Toyota in 2021 with emphasis on the EV market. "I think this is an exciting new inflection point for the market overall, for [an] idea of an all-electric future, and certainly shows that we're extremely committed to the idea of everybody in an electric vehicle," said Wahl.
With the annual CES convention underway amid COVID, HP unveiled rolled out a number of new products virtually this year, including new gaming PCs and 4K display monitors. But as industries look toward a greener future, HP is working with the climate crisis in mind. James McCall, chief sustainability officer at HP, joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss the company's climate goals, which includes reducing its carbon footprint to net-zero by 2040. He admitted that reaching the ambitious goal will be difficult because much of the company's emissions totals come from third parties. "A large part of our footprint is outside of HP's direct control. A lot of it comes either from our incoming supply chain, the materials, our manufacturing process, or about 30 to 40 percent of it comes from our consumer-use base," McCall told Cheddar.
Martin Fischer, president of technology supplier for cars and commercial vehicles ZF North America, joined Cheddar to discuss the company's solutions for next-generation mobility in autonomous vehicles and its plans to usher in the next phase of electric vehicles. He also talked about the rising demand for self-driving technology on a global scale. "Whereas we are really active also there for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, what we showcase at CES now virtually is our autonomous shuttles," he said. "So, what that means is we bring these vehicles to busy city centers and can take traffic levels down."
Steve Patton, EY Americas Mobility Sector Leader, joins Cheddar News to discuss what can be done to speed up the adoption of EVs, and how infrastructure can be scaled up to support this transition.
