Tesla-SolarCity merger: ‘Early vote overwhelmingly in favor… confident it will pass’, says Musk

Even though Tesla just released a new report with the clear goal to pitch the SolarCity acquisition to its shareholders, CEO Elon Musk is now saying that he would be surprised if the merger wouldn’t pass at this point.

He even referenced the early votes which he described as “overwhelmingly in favor” of the merger.

Tesla and SolarCity shareholders have been able to vote by proxy for the past few weeks now ahead of the November 17 special shareholders meeting for the official vote.

During a conference call following the release of the previously mentioned report, Musk said:

“As I expressed before, I’m pretty optimistic about where the vote is going. The early votes so far have been overwhelmingly in favor and I’d be surprised if it wouldn’t pass.”

While it’s indeed not the first time Musk expressed his confidence in the merger being approved by shareholders, especially after talking with major investors, it is the first time that he has done it since shareholders have been allowed to vote by proxy.

Now that the early votes appear to be in favor of the merger and after several major investors, like Fidelity’s OTC Portfolio, said they were behind the idea, everything points toward the merger actually going through at this point.

We will know for sure on November 17 at the special shareholders meeting, but it could end up only being a formality.