Tesla and SolarCity shareholders approve $2.6 billion merger

Enlarge (credit: Tesla)

On Thursday afternoon, Tesla announced that its investors and SolarCity investors agreed to a $2.6 billion all-stock merger of the two companies. The decision passed with an 85 percent vote of approval.

SolarCity shareholders will receive 0.11 Tesla shares for every share of SolarCity stock they own.

The deal had been a topic of some controversy since Tesla announced the proposed in June. Investors were suspicious of Tesla adding more debt to its books and were uncertain why Tesla had to buy SolarCity. Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent the interim months convincing shareholders that the deal would be mutually beneficial and would create “cost synergies” for both companies—SolarCity panels would be able to be sold alongside Powerwall stationary storage batteries and Tesla vehicles at the same storefront, for example.