*By Carlo Versano*
Tesla shares sank 3 percent in early trading Monday, following CEO Elon Musk's [announcement](https://www.tesla.com/blog/STAying-public) over the weekend that he is abandoning his controversial plan to take the company private.
The reversal capped 16 days of panic inside Tesla to see whether the idea, put forth in a tweet earlier this month, was viable. It finally became clear, by Musk's own admission, that it was not.
In the blog post, published without the fanfare of his earlier tweets, Musk said it had become clear to him that, while "there was more than enough funding" to take Tesla private, doing so would estrange many of the company's existing shareholders (and most ardent supporters of the company). It was reported that Musk also became wary of the strings attached to taking cash from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which he said expressed both the interest and ability to fund his buyout.
Musk also said the company "absolutely must stay focused on ramping Model 3 and becoming profitable." Advancing such a huge, complex buyout of public shareholders ー one Musk originally valued at $72 billion ー would take resources away from that effort.
While the will-he-won't-he drama that had captivated Wall Street and Silicon Valley for the last three weeks seems to have come to an end, Musk may not be out from under the thumb of regulators yet. The SEC began a formal inquiry into what Musk meant when he tweeted that he had "secured funding" for a buyout and whether that constituted securities fraud.
That investigation is reportedly still underway, even without a go-private deal on the horizon.
Stepping up a feud with Washington over technology and security, China's government on Sunday told users of computer equipment deemed sensitive to stop buying products from the biggest U.S. memory chipmaker, Micron Technology Inc.
Stocks are moving tentatively Monday, as Wall Street waits to see whether a pivotal meeting in the afternoon will help the U.S. government avoid a potentially disastrous default on its debt.
Scores of Boston University students turned their backs on the head of one of Hollywood's biggest studios, and some shouted “pay your writers,” as he gave the school's commencement address Sunday in a stadium where protesters supporting the Hollywood writers' strike picketed outside.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking that a federal judge be disqualified from the First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor and his appointees, claiming the jurist's prior statements in other cases have raised questions about his impartiality on the state's efforts to take over Disney World's governing body.
Ford CEO Jim Farley says the company will stop competing in over-served market segments and instead will place big bets on connected vehicles and digital services. The days of Ford being all things to all people are over, Farley said at the company's capital markets day event Monday.
The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.
