Tesla Motors Officially Owns Solar Panel Installer SolarCity

Tesla Motors Officially Owns Solar Panel Installer SolarCity
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, in this file photo. Musk has transformed the automobile industry but now needs to move on. DAVID MCNEW/AFP/Getty Images
The Associated Press
Updated:
 
PALO ALTO, California—Tesla Motors now owns the nation’s largest solar panel installer.

Tesla’s deal to acquire SolarCity Corp. closed Monday morning.

Shareholders of both companies approved the deal last week by wide margins.

The all-stock deal valued SolarCity at $2 billion based on Tesla’s closing stock price Friday. It was worth $2.6 billion when Tesla and SolarCity announced the agreement in August, but their share prices have dropped since then.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk—who is also chairman of SolarCity—wants to sell solar panels through Tesla’s stores. Customers can buy them to power their homes and charge their Tesla electric vehicles.

Musk says the companies’ first joint product—solar roof tiles that look like traditional tiles—should be ready for installation by next summer.