Tesla is nearing a key resistance level ahead of its contentious annual meeting on Tuesday
- Tesla rose as much as 2% Monday, getting it back near the $300 resistance level that it has flirted with all year.
- There's a movement to boot four members - including Elon Musk's brother Kimball - from Tesla's board.
- Follow Tesla's stock price in real-time here.
Shares of Tesla rose as much as 2%, once again nearing the key resistance level of $300, in early trading Monday ahead of its contentious annual shareholders meeting later this week at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
Tesla investors will be voting on the future of three members of the board of directors, all of which have drawn increased scrutiny as Tesla's struggles to become profitable reach a breaking point. Now, they are facing movements to boot them from their positions.
Elon Musk's brother, Kimball, who runs a small organic restaurant chain as well as an urban farming venture, has served on the electric car maker's board since 2017. But one prominent group representing union pension investments, CtW Investment Group, says there's no reason - other than nepotism - for him to stay on, arguing he "has no professional experience in the auto industry, and has proven ineffective as a public company director at Chipotle."
CtW also opposes the re-election of current director Antonio Gracias and James Murdoch. Gracias has served on the board for over a decade, and as director since 2010, but "lacks the independence to serve as Lead Independent director," the group said last month.
James Murdoch, the son of son of the British media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been a board member for less than a year. CtW says he "lacks relevant industry experience, and has been deeply implicated in multiple corporate scandals at Fox and News Corp."
Tesla supports re-election of all three of the members up for re-election as well as another, Steve Jurvetson, who has been on an extended leave of absence since November 2017 when unspecific allegations of sexual misconduct led to his resignation from his venture capital firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He has denied those allegations.
"We are concerned by the fairly extraordinary length of Mr. Jurvetson's leave of absence," proxy firm Glass Lewis said in a report in May. "The board has provided no assurances as to when he might resume his service. Directors have a fundamental responsibility to represent shareholders at board meetings; while Mr. Jurvetson is entitled to devote time to his personal matters, we do not believe this should come into conflict with the need of Company shareholders for board representation."
Stockholders will also be voting on a proposal to require that the chair of the board of directors be an independent director, something the company opposes.
"In the United States, many big companies already have or began to have an independent board chairman," the supporting statement says. "Tesla should not be the exception." Tesla disagrees, saying its success "would not have been possible if the Board was led by another director lacking Elon Musk's day-to-day exposure to the company's business."
Tesla has been hovering near $300 for the better part of 2018 as questions about the company's potential need for a cash infusion and production issues continue to weigh on investors' minds.
Read more about the major stories Tesla investors will be discussing tomorrow:
- There's growing concern over Tesla's finances - and Wall Street is convinced the company will need to raise money soon
- Elon Musk promises Tesla Model 3 will get some new features in the coming months
- Tesla has the power to shake up the auto industry if it scales back its product offerings, analyst says
- Tesla flew in six planes full of robots in an effort to speed up battery production at the Gigafactory
- In a Twitter rant, Elon Musk vowed to create a news credibility rating site called 'Pravda' - here's how that's connected to Russia