This presentation is the fourth in a series that examines fairness and solvency issues raised in several transactions involving companies controlled by Elon Musk. In doing so, we are not casting judgements about how transactions were handled; rather, Musk – one of the most colorful, successful and controversial figures of the 21st century – provides good content for our consideration of fairness and solvency in corporate transactions and more generally corporate governance issues generally. For those who view Musk as stepping on toes and crossing a boundary or two, he did not become the wealthiest person in the world by being cautious.
Our three prior pieces on Musk are:
Telsa Walks the Entirely Fair Line with SolarCity reviewed the victory the Delaware Court of Chancery handed Musk under the “entire fairness” standard in 2022 regarding a shareholder lawsuit concerning the 2016 acquisition of SolarCity.
Twitter Solvency: A Bridge Likely Too Far reviewed the concept of corporate solvency, solvency opinions and the tough set-up Musk’s lenders faced by providing $13 billion of debt financing as part of his over-priced $44 billion cash acquisition of then publicly traded Twitter in October 2022.
All in the Family: X Corp. merges with x.AI Corp. reviewed the corporate governance and fairness issues through the merger of two private companies controlled by Musk.