A group of Tesla investors has prompted the automaker to add 2 new independent directors to its board, without ties to CEO Elon Musk, to give a “critical check on possible dysfunctional group dynamics.”
Musk took to to Twitter on Wednesday to recommend the investors buy stock in Ford Motor instead. The Ford family controls the Detroit car manufacturer through two classes of stock.
In a letter from Monday, five investment groups consisting of the California State Teachers Retirement System, Hermes Equity Ownership Services and CtW Investment Group prompted Tesla to have all of its directors re-elected every year.
“We expect that as companies make the transition to publicly-traded status, the governance structures and practices in place at the time of the IPO will develop to align with the company’s changing technique,” the letter checks out. “However, Tesla’s seven-member board is mainly unchanged from its pre-IPO days.”
Led by Musk, Tesla just recently became the most valuable U.S. auto company, surpassing General Motors to gain the top position.
Tesla’s market price has since slipped to simply shy of GM’s. As of Wednesday, the market cap of Tesla was $50.3 billion, while GM’s was $50.8 billion.
“This investor group need to purchase Ford stock,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “Their governance is remarkable …”.
Musk then stated on Twitter that he would follow up quickly on an earlier pledge to select more independent directors, however, “this (investor) group has nothing to do with it”.
Over the last few month, Tesla stock has risen 35 percent as investors bet that Musk will transform the car and energy markets.
Among those on Tesla’s board is Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon Musk, and Brad Buss, who worked as chief financial officer at SolarCity, which the automaker obtained last year.
