Elon Musk announced back in June that Tesla wished to purchase solar power company SolarCity. Now the world is one step closer to the clean energy super company that could result from such a merger. Today in a blog post, Tesla announced the two companies have come to an agreement: a hefty “all-stock transaction with an equity value of $2.6 billion.”
With SolarCity’s focus on renewable energy, and Tesla’s focus on storage, Musk apparently believes now is the perfect time to combine the two companies, especially as Tesla aims to grow its Powerwall product. In Elon Musk’s “Master Plan Part Deux,” released near the end of July, he said it’s been a goal of his for ten years to offer solar energy, and combining with SolarCity could allow Tesla to achieve that goal. He spoke of a “beautiful solar-roof-with-battery that just works,” and envisioned with a merger the process to transition to clean energy would be simple for a customer: “One ordering experience, one installation, one service contract, one phone app.”
Related: Elon Musk aims to build clean energy giant with Tesla’s $2.8 billion bid for SolarCity
Musk said, “That [Telsa and SolarCity] are separate at all, despite similar origins and pursuit of the same overarching goal of sustainable energy, is largely an accident of history.”
The blog post released by Tesla today announcing the agreement with SolarCity echoes many of those dreams laid out in Musk’s updated master plan. With the combination of two companies, they said, there could be an easy “one-stop solar + storage experience.”
SolarCity organized a committee to review the agreement apart from Musk’s influence, reports Reuters. As Musk sits on the board of SolarCity, of which his cousin Lyndon Rive is CEO (another cousin, Peter Rive, also sits on the board), they and many other executives won’t vote on the agreement.
Under the agreement, there will be a “go-shop” provision, which means Solar City has 45 days, until September 14, to see if they get a better offer than Tesla’s offer. In the blog post Tesla said they anticipate closing the transaction in 2016’s fourth quarter.
Via The Verge
Images via SolarCity Facebook and Flickr
