SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY)’s merger with Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has received antitrust approval. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) confirmed on Thursday that it has given the go ahead for Tesla to buy the solar panel installer. This helped raise the stocks’ values by as much as 0.4 percent.
SolarCity Corp & Tesla Gain FTC Approval
Investors aren’t too pleased with the SolarCity and Tesla merger. They have been hoping for a regulatory snag. However, those hopes may have been dashed. For the naysayers, the multi-billion-dollar deal has been given the antitrust nod by the U.S. government.
It was announced late last week that the FTC provided the antitrust approval. The merger was on a list of proposed transactions for the FTC to oversee. The federal agency offered a very fast approval since the merging firms had either very few or no overlaps whatsoever.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk presented the proposal earlier this summer. The offer was worth $2.6 billion. After some intensive lobbying and combating against public opinion, the merger was completed on Aug. 1.
Officials still had to seek approval from the government. The initiative is part of Tesla’s efforts to enhance economies of scale when it comes to battery production, electrical energy management systems and marketing.
Although Tesla plans to take advantage of SolarCity’s technology, it is SolarCity that benefits more. The solar firm, which has been struggling over the last 12 months, has found it very difficult to compete because of the growing competition. Other solar firms have been offering consumers with low-cost solar energy and installations. Moreover, SolarCity has been hurt by state governments veering away from subsidies that intended to ramp up rooftop solar installations.
Now that Musk, Lyndon Rive and everyone else at SolarCity and Tesla have been given the regulatory thumbs up, all of the parties can move ahead with synergy.
The Very Latest in the SolarCity Corp & Tesla Merger
Soon after they were given the antitrust approval, Tesla moved ahead with buying more than half of SolarCity’s bond offering. It is estimated that Tesla purchased more than $60 million in bonds. This is the first step in the increased integration.
Despite the big smile on Musk’s face, the acquisition is proving to provide troubles for Tesla.
Because the merger is expected to cost Tesla a large chunk of money over the next several years, Tesla needs more cash to combine the two firms. Since Tesla is barely turning a profit, it has been having great difficulty in finding investors to buy its debt. With Tesla buying the bonds, financial experts suggest that Musk is focusing too much on the future and not on the present problems starting to form.
As Musk is attempting to woo Wall Street and Silicon Valley investors, pundits warn that he is actually losing investor confidence. There’s also a suggestion that he is eroding his personal wealth, too.
For the most part, even with the unveiling of a new product from the SolarCity-Tesla merger, a lot of Wall Street analysts are bearish towards Musk and his endeavors.
