Elon Musk’s announcement that he was considering taking Tesla off the stock market should not have been a total surprise.
If Musk goes through with his plan he will join a long line of entrepreneurs who have floated their businesses only to become frustrated by the demands of running a public company.
Virgin’s Richard Branson, Hugh Hefner of Playboy and Michael Dell of the computer maker have all taken their companies private in the belief that they would fare better out of the glare of the markets.
Other well-known brands taken private by founders after a spell as a public company include Iceland, Caffè Nero and Matalan – but Tesla is of a completely different scale and would require Musk raising tens of billions of dollars in funding.
The main reasons for taking a company private include:
A public company is just that – owned by external investors – mainly through pension and other investment funds that buy shares. Management therefore has to be publicly accountable and subject to scrutiny by investors and in the press. Most chief executives accept that attention but some company founders resent being in the spotlight. After Virgin floated in 1986 Richard Branson, an extrovert when it comes to marketing his products, never warmed to the task of explaining his finances and decisions to the City and two years later he took Virgin private again.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
