特斯拉擬26億美元收購SolarCity

Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors, brushed aside criticisms of corporate over-reach and conflicts of interest yesterday on Monday as he unveiled an agreement to pay $2.6bn in stock for SolarCity, the solar power company where he is also chairman.

特斯拉汽車(Tesla Motors)首席執行官埃倫•馬斯克(Elon Musk)週一沒有理會有關企業伸手過長和利益衝突的批評，他公佈了一項協議，將用價值26億美元的股票收購由他擔任董事長的太陽能發電公司SolarCity。

The electric car and space entrepreneur drew criticism when he first publicly proposed a deal in June, including from Wall Street analysts who have usually been among the biggest boosters of his hugely ambitious ventures.

今年6月，這位電動汽車和航天企業家首次公開提議這筆交易，引發外界批評，包括通常對他雄心勃勃的計劃最爲支持的華爾街分析師們。

The attempt to create what Mr Musk described as the first vertically-integrated sustainable energy conglomerate has drawn widespread scepticism. Analysts continued to question yesterday wether the deal would distract Tesla at one of the most important moments in its history, as it tries to overcome a spate of production problems and massively increase its car production.

創建馬斯克所稱的首家垂直整合的可持續能源綜合企業的嘗試，招致了廣泛批評。分析人士昨日繼續質疑這筆交易是否將在特斯拉史上最重要的時刻之一分散其注意力，該公司正努力解決一系列生產問題，以便大規模增加汽車產量。

Given Mr Musk’s personal stake of around 20 per cent in both companies, the offer also raised questions about whether he was using Tesla to bail out the struggling power company. whose shares had fallen by nearly two-thirds from a year ago. However, the hit that Mr Musk’s Tesla stock suffered when he suggested the deal has more than cancelled out his potential gain from selling SolarCity.

鑑於馬斯克個人在這兩家公司的持股在20%左右，合併提議還讓人懷疑他是否在利用特斯拉爲這家步履維艱的太陽能發電公司紓困。SolarCity股價較一年前下跌近三分之二。然而，在馬斯克提出這筆交易後特斯拉股價遭遇的重創，不止抵消了他從出售SolarCity中可能獲得的好處。

Addressing accusations of personal conflicts, Mr Musk described media critics as “silly buggers, honestly”. Keeping the two companies separate as they tried to integrate their solar power and electric storage products would create more conflicts of interest than merging them, he said.

馬斯克迴應了關於個人利益衝突的指責，他將媒體評論人士稱爲“蠢貨，坦率地說”。他說，在這兩家公司努力整合太陽能發電和電力存儲產品之際，讓它們獨立運營將比合並它們產生更多的利益衝突。

But investors remained underwhelmed by the idea, with Tesla shares dropping 2 per cent when trading opened on Monday. SolarCity’s shares also fell, losing 6.25 per cent after it agreed to an exchange ratio of 0.11 of a Tesla share for each share in the solar company, below the ratio of 0.122-0.131 that Mr Musk had first suggested in June.

但投資者依然對這一想法不以爲然，特斯拉股票在週一開盤交易時下跌2%。SolarCity股價也出現了下跌，在同意以本公司每股置換0.11股特斯拉股票之後下跌6.25%——這一置換比率低於馬斯克最初在6月提議的0.122-0.131倍的比率。

The deal also needs the approval of a majority of shareholders on both sides, with Mr Musk agreeing not to vote his shares.

該交易還需獲得兩家公司多數股東的批准，馬斯克同意不會用自己的股份進行投票。