Elon Musk the renowned self-made billionaire and CEO of Tesla Motors has orchestrated a massive initiative to save SolarCity — a solar panel installation company — from failure.
SolarCity, which Elon Musk is also a cofounder of, has had a steady decrease in revenue for some time now. With eventual collapse seeming inevitable. However, Tesla Motors, has just announced they have finalized their merger with SolarCity at a whopping price tag of $2.6 billion.
The publicly stated goal of the merger is to create a company that offers renewable energy and battery storage options for home and electric vehicles under a single brand.
Others however see this merger as a vain or deluded attempt to save the company for the sake of saving face or — in the business world — worse, family ties.
Elon Musk sits as chairman of SolarCity, with his Co-founders Lyndon Rive and Peter Rive; Musk’s cousins. Taking the age old advice of, “never doing business with family” to the fire.
News of the merger first started circulating back in June, in their most recent statement both companies said that “Solar and storage are at their best when combined.”
“Now is the right time to bring our two companies together: Tesla is getting ready to scale our Powerwall and Powerpack stationary storage products and SolarCity is getting ready to offer next-generation differentiated solar solutions. By joining forces, we can operate more efficiently and fully integrate our products, while providing customers with an aesthetically beautiful and simple one-stop solar + storage experience: one installation, one service contract, one phone app.”
Tesla still holds all the cards, with 93.5 percent of the merged companies belonging solely to it, with SolarCity holding the other 6.5 percent.
Elon Musk has been vocal on his vision of moving the world towards a sustainable world, this seems to be a step in the right direction.