Tesla shareholders would be better off voting down the company’s merger with SolarCity, in part because combining the two companies would likely cause Tesla’s expenditures to explode.
The merger looks like a loser from a Tesla shareholder’s perspective, mostly because the addition of SolarCity would wear on Tesla’s financial well-being, as the company’s capital expenditures alone are expected to balloon to $1.75 billion by the second half of the year.
Adding the hulking, money-bleeding solar-panel developer to the mix would inevitably compound this problem.
SolarCity spent nearly $800 million on operating expenses in 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, essentially dwarfing its total revenue by more than half. The solar panel maker is an albatross on shareholders’ necks: It currently has more than $3 billion in long-term debt on its books; and its expenses hit $265 million by June.
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