The Internet and financial industry weren't the only ones to take notice Tuesday when Tesla CEO [NYSE: TSLA] Elon Musk took to Twitter floating the idea of taking the automaker private.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that SEC investigators could be looking into a variety of violations such as artificially raising the automaker's value via the Tweet and failure to disclose the source of funding to shareholders.
On Wednesday, board members released a statement confirming Musk was serious about taking the automaker private, and that board was made aware of the proposal last week.
Musk tweeted he wanted to take Tesla private by buying back stock at $420 per share, and that current shareholders would be able to keep their stake in the automaker.
Tesla released a statement Tuesday, which was emailed to employees hours earlier, laying out how and why the automaker would go private. Tesla revealed that Musk currently holds "about 20 percent of the company now" and that he doesn't see that changing.
Ultimately it will be up to the shareholders whether Tesla remains public or goes private, but the SEC is now curious about how Tuesday's events unfolded.
