- Goldman Sachs is working with Tesla on its bid to go private, the bank confirmed Wednesday.
- It’s still unclear if there was a formal agreement when Elon Musk tweeted about working with the Wall Street firm.
- Follow Tesla’s stock price in real-time here.
Two days after Elon Musk said he was “excited to work with Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors” in his bid to take Tesla private, at least half of the tweet has been confirmed.
In a note to clients Wednesday, Goldman Sachs said it was removing price targets and stock ratings for Tesla because it is acting as a financial advisor “in connection with a matter that is fundamental to the reasonable analysis of the rating and price target for the stock.”
“Earnings estimates during this period will be made without regard to the proposed matter,” Goldman said.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that, at the time of Musk’s tweet, Goldman Sachs’ Tesla analyst, David Tamberrino, had not yet received a mandate to suspend coverage, as is typical when a bank’s investment banking unit does business with a company under its sell-side department’s research coverage. The two departments of any given bank are legally required to maintain independence through what is known as a “Chinese wall.”
Silver Lake, the other half of Musk's tweet, has been assisting in an unpaid role with the transaction, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, but had not yet been formally tapped as an advisor.
This story is developing …