Shareholders to Vote on Revolutionary Tesla-SolarCity Merger

One of the many, many big moves Elon Musk has planned for the near and distant future includes merging two companies he founded– Tesla and SolarCity, a solar panel manufacturer. Shareholders of both companies are scheduled to vote to approve or deny Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity on November 17.

Musk’s plan is to transform Tesla into a company that provides the sustainable energy equivalent of farm-to-table, known as vertical integration in corporate parlance (think back to the John Rockefeller lesson from your US history class). As Tesla’s blog states, the merged company “will be able to provide the first ever opportunity to generate, store and consume energy entirely sustainably, through a suite of integrated products that add aesthetics and function while reducing cost.”

Ahead of the vote, Tesla and Solarcity will host a joint event in which they’ll unveil SolarCity’s solar roof, a Tesla charger, and the Powerwall 2.0, a home energy storage device. The product exposés will also offer the public a better idea of what Musk envisions: a smooth and integrated product experience where users harvest solar energy, store it at home, and use it to charge their cars.

For his part, Musk has been planning on the merger for a long time and has been very transparent about his intentions, having declared solar power an integral part of his master plan for reforming the auto industry ten years ago. After all, the Tesla Model S can’t save the planet if it’s powered by coal-generated electricity. To dispel fears of conflicts of interest, Musk and other insiders have even decided not to vote on November 17, even though Musk is the largest shareholder in both companies and isn’t legally required to abstain. It’ll be up to faithful shareholders to usher his merger through the vote.