Venture Capital
Tesla Motors Plans $100 Million I.P.O.
February 1, 2010, 6:47 am
Tesla
Tesla Motors, the electric car company in Silicon Valley, said on Friday that it had filed plans to sell shares to the public.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said it was seeking to raise $100 million in an initial public offering, though that amount could change. An offering would be a vindication for the company, which has struggled, sometimes publicly, with technological problems, production delays and internal turmoil, The New York Times’s Claire Cain Miller writes.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, has also battled critics who have doubted whether the company could ever succeed financially.
In the nine months that ended last September, Tesla posted a net loss of $31.5 million on revenue of $93.4 million. Last February, Mr. Musk wrote customers that the company would be profitable by midyear. Tesla has lost money each quarter, and it warned in the filing that revenue would probably fall and losses climb until the Model S, a mass-market sedan, was on the roads.
Tesla told potential investors in the filing that its business model would help it avoid the woes that have beset traditional automakers. Because Tesla designs, manufactures, sells and services its own vehicles, it can operate more cost-efficiently and quickly incorporate customer feedback into production of the cars, it said.
According to the filing, Tesla has sold 937 of its Roadster sports cars, at $109,000 each. The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., says the Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 miles an hour in under four seconds.
Tesla showed the Model S last March and said it would sell for around $57,400. At the time, Mr. Musk said it would be available in 2011, but the due date has since been moved to 2012. The company has warned that it could encounter serious delays, much as the Roadster did. Two thousand people have reserved Model S vehicles with $5,000 deposits, according to the filing.
Tesla has raised about $240 million from investors, including the German automaker Daimler and the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Mr. Musk, who made his fortune when PayPal, a company he co-founded, was sold to eBay, also invested in the company.
Tesla also received a $465 million long-term loan from the Energy Department, which was given warrants to buy up to 9,255,035 common shares upon the closing of the offering at an exercise price of $2.51.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank Securities are listed as underwriters.
Go to Article from The New York Times »
Go to Press Release from Tesla »
Go to S.E.C. Filing from Tesla »
AI
