Elon Musk to Teslas disgruntled shareholders: Buy Ford

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Elon Musk has some advice for investors who say they’re fed up with his iron grip over Tesla’s board: Buy Ford shares instead.

The trash-talking tech billionaire took to Twitter late Wednesday after five major investment groups urged Tesla to add two new independent directors to its board and allow all of the electric car maker’s directors to be re-elected annually.

“This investor group should buy Ford stock,” Musk tweeted. “Their governance is amazing…”

Musk — who appeared to be sarcastically referring to the fact that Ford’s stock is controlled by the Ford family through a controversial two-class stock structure — reiterated an earlier pledge to add more independent directors.

“But this group has nothing to do with it,” Musk added.

The investor “group” in question includes some of the nation’s biggest pension funds, including the California State Teachers Retirement System, Hermes Equity Ownership Services and CtW Investment Group.

In a Monday letter, the group prodded Tesla to grow up and improve its governance, which got blasted last year when Musk pushed through a merger between Tesla and SolarCity, a money-losing solar panel company founded by Musk’s cousin.

“We expect that as companies make the transition to publicly-traded status, the governance structures and practices in place at the time of the IPO will evolve to align with the company’s changing strategy,” the letter reads. “However, Tesla’s seven-member board is largely unchanged from its pre-IPO days.”

Earlier this week, Tesla recently became the most valuable US car company, passing General Motors for the top spot after blowing past Ford last week.

Tesla’s market value has since slipped to just shy of GM’s. As of Wednesday, the market cap of the Silicon Valley automaker was $50.3 billion, while GM’s was $50.8 billion.

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