Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the

collision of tech, business, and politics. I'm Dan Premack. On today's show, a congressman gets busted for insider trading.

But first, Elon Musk and the tweet heard round the street. At 12.48 p.m. yesterday, Eastern Standard Time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, told the world that he's considering taking Tesla private for $420 per share and that he has the funding secured.

Now, this surprise just about everyone, including, it seems, people in the Tesla investor relations and public relations departments who took quite a bit of time before even confirming that Musk's account hadn't been hacked.

Now, look, Tesla is a very polarizing company, which is why it's the most shorted stock on Wall Street,

and reaction to Musk's tweet was similarly divided.

There was lots of praise from Elon fanboys, who are legion and they're kind of going with this argument

that a private Tesla would be able to think longer term, invest more for the future instead of

always having to focus on hitting next quarter's numbers. It's the sort of thing that's kind

of scripture within private equity circles. And then there was a lot of skepticism from, well,

let's start with me. So my big question is just how he got the quote,

funding secured, without word of it leaking out. And that question only grew larger as I began

calling around and found that no big Wall Street bank is involved, nor were big strategic

players like Apple or Uber, or big private equity firms, or even deeper pockets like SoftBank.

Now, Elon Musk could obviously make me look silly

by just identifying the finances. But he isn't doing that, not only not in his tweets, but also

in a related blog post. And he hasn't even presented an actual takeover offer. Again, he's just,

quote, considering it. The bottom line here is that Elon Musk isn't now and has never been conventional. But if this

isn't a very serious pursuit, or if he doesn't really have funding secured, then he could be

putting himself in serious regulatory jeopardy and even jeopardizing the future of Tesla. We're joined now

by Steve Levine, future editor at Axios, to discuss all things Elon Musk and Tesla.

We're joined now by Steve Levine, future editor at Axis, to discuss all things Elon Musk and Tesla.

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