text: Getty Images Elon Musk 
   
   A statement from Tesla’s board members on Wednesday raises further questions following the shock tweet from Elon Musk that he wants to take the auto maker private. 
   
   The brief news release from Tesla board members—Brad Buss, Robyn Denholm, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Linda Johnson Rice, and James Murdoch—consisted of three sentences: 
   
   Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private. This included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla’s long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur. The board has met several times over the last week and is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this. 
   
   Two board members, venture capital investor Steve Jurvetson as well as Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, didn’t sign on to the statement. (Jurvetson has taken leave from Tesla after being accused of sexual harassment.) 
   
   The statement from members of Tesla Inc.’s TSLA, +5.77% board does show there was a discussion of how he could fund such a bid. But the board’s statement leaves open the crucial question of whether they were satisfied that—as Musk’s surprise tweet put it—he had enough backing to assert “funding secured.” 
   
   At $420 a share, the price at which Musk tweeted he was considering setting the bid, the deal would be valued at $72 billion before debt. 
   
   Related: A Tesla buyout would be the largest in history—by a wide margin 
   
   Tesla shares were down more than 1% early Wednesday, after surging by about 11% on Tuesday. The electric-car maker’s stock has climbed by 21% so far this year. By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +3.29% is set for a year-to-date gain of 3.5%, the S&P 500 index SPX, +3.43% is on track for a return of 6.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +4.26% has advanced by more than 14% so far this year, according to FactSet data. Tesla’s run-up comes despite the company being a consistent target of investors aiming to short the its stock, or bet against Tesla’s shares rising. 
   
   Another crucial question raised by the statement is the timing. “Last week” predates Tesla’s filing on Monday of its 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which didn’t mention such discussions. 
   
   News of a takeover would certainly be considered material, yet it wasn’t disclosed until Musk’s tweet on Tuesday. 
   
   Another question is what the “appropriate next steps” are, though that’s probably the imminent formation of a committee to evaluate the bid. 
   
   What was left out of the statement also is worth considering. For instance, there was no indication that the board was satisfied with either Musk’s method or timing for announcing the approach, though they didn’t rebuke him, either. 
   
   Murdoch also sits on the board of News Corp., which owns MarketWatch, the publisher of this report. 
   
   Related: Did Elon Musk break any laws with his going-private tweet? 
   
   Want news about Europe delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Europe Daily newsletter. Sign up here. ||||| Several independent directors of Tesla Inc.’s board said Wednesday it has met several times over the past week to discuss Chief Executive Elon Musk’s proposal to take the electric-car maker private in what would be the biggest buyout in history. 
   
   “Last week, Elon opened a discussion with the board about taking the company private,” according to a statement from several board members. The talks included how being a private company could “better serve Tesla’s long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur,”... ||||| Image copyright Getty Images 
   
   Tesla's board has confirmed that it will consider the proposal by chief executive Elon Musk to take it private. 
   
   A statement was issued by six members of the electric carmaker's board after Mr Musk tweeted to say he had the funding to de-list the company. 
   
   The board had "met several times over the last week" to discuss going private, the statement said. 
   
   They said this "included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla's long-term interests". 
   
   Mr Musk said in his tweet on Tuesday that shareholders would be offered $420 (£326) per share, valuing the business at more than $70bn. 
   
   This would make it the biggest deal of its kind, surpassing the purchase of utility TXU Corp in 2007 for $44bn by a consortium. 
   
   The brief statement by six of the nine board directors said Mr Musk had "opened a discussion" about taking the company private last week. 
   
   The discussions "addressed the funding for this to occur", the six directors added. They did not include Mr Musk, his brother Kimbal Musk, and Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist. 
   
   'Irregular' announcement 
   
   The board statement came amid questions about how Mr Musk opted to disclose the possible de-listing to investors. 
   
   While companies are allowed to make announcements via social media, typically they also make a simultaneous regulatory filing, said Andrew M Calamari, a partner at the law firm Finn Dixon & Herling and former director of the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US market regulator. 
   
   "Just in terms of the style of this, it strikes me as very irregular," Mr Calamari said. 
   
   "It also raises questions about his intent," he added. "Was he in earnest in what he's saying, or does he have some other motive" like influencing the stock price. 
   
   Tesla shares reached a peak of $368 after Mr Musk's tweets on Tuesday, before trading on the stock market was halted. 
   
   Trades resumed later that afternoon, after the company published an email from Mr Musk to employees elaborating on the plans. 
   
   Tesla shares surged close to their all-time high of $385, which they touched almost a year ago, but fluctuated on Wednesday after the board members issued their statement. 
   
   'Wild swings' 
   
   In the staff memo, Mr Musk explained why he wanted to take the company private. 
   
   "As a public company, we are subject to wild swings in our stock price that can be a major distraction for everyone working at Tesla, all of whom are shareholders," he wrote. 
   
   "Being public also subjects us to the quarterly earnings cycle that puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long term," he wrote. 
   
   He added that the company was "the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market" - a trading strategy which assumes share prices will fall - so "being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company". 
   
   Those traders are likely to have lost money when the share price rose on the announcement about a delisting. 
   
   Questions continue 
   
   Mr Musk already owns 20% of the company. He said his intention in taking the company private was not to increase his personal holding and his plan would give existing investors the option to retain their shares. 
   
   Regulators are likely to be interested in what evidence exists - such as agreements with investors or banks - for Mr Musk's claim that funding was "secured", Mr Calamari said. 
   
   The Securities and Exchange Commission, the US market regulator, has inquired about the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported. 
   
   The structure of the deal also remains ambiguous, said Adam C Pritchard, professor of securities law at the University of Michigan. 
   
   If more than 2,000 investors opt to retain their shares, then the firm would be subject to the disclosure rules of a public company, he added. 
   
   "Intuitively it doesn't make sense because it would still be a public entity, and the public entity status is what is apparently objectionable to Musk," Mr Pritchard said. 
   
   Steven Kaplan, a University of Chicago professor who researches private equity, said it would be difficult for Mr Musk to raise the necessary finance when Tesla has still not made a profit. 
   
   "The company is cash-flow negative. How do you use any debt on a company that is cash-flow negative?" he said.
target: – Elon Musk wasn't blowing smoke. The BBC reports on a three-sentence statement issued by six of Tesla's nine board members saying the board had "met several times over the last week" to discuss Musk's proposal to take the company private, which he announced via an unexpected tweet Tuesday. The talks "included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla's long-term interests" and the statement ends by saying the board "is taking the appropriate next steps to evaluate this." The three board members who did not sign the statement are Musk, brother Kimbal Musk, and a board member who is on leave, reports the Wall Street Journal. At MarketWatch, Steve Goldstein flags some unresolved points: The statement didn't elaborate on Musk's claim of "funding secured" and raised but didn't answer a question of timing. "'Last week' predates Tesla's filing on Monday of its 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which didn't mention such discussions. News of a takeover would certainly be considered material," he writes. Shares of Tesla are currently down about 1%.