IT'S OFFICIAL: Goldman Sachs is advising Elon Musk on his plans to take Tesla private

Kiichiro Sato/AP

Tesla CEO and founder of the Boring Company Elon Musk speaks at a news conference, Thursday, June 14, 2018, in Chicago.

• Goldman Sachs is working with Tesla on its bid to go private, the bank confirmed Wednesday.
• It's still unclear if there was a formal agreement when Elon Musk tweeted about working with the Wall Street firm.
• Follow Tesla's stock price in real-time here.

Two days after Elon Musk said he was "excited to work with Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors" in his bid to take Tesla private, at least half of the tweet has been confirmed.

In a note to clients Wednesday, Goldman Sachs said it was suspending research coverage of Tesla because it is "acting as a financial advisor in connection with a matter that is fundamental to the reasonable analysis of the rating and price target for the stock."

"Earnings estimates during this period will be made without regard to the proposed matter," Goldman said, adding that the "not rated" status "will continue until such time as sufficient information is available, and/or contingencies appear resolved, to allow such analysis."

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that, at the time of Musk's tweet, Goldman Sachs' Tesla analyst David Tamberrino had not yet received a mandate to suspend coverage, as is typical when a bank's investment banking unit does business with a company under its sell-side department's research coverage. The two departments of any given bank are legally required to maintain independence through what is known as a "Chinese wall."

Silver Lake, the other half of Musk's tweet, has been assisting in an unpaid role with the transaction, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, but had not yet been formally tapped as an advisor.

Musk's cryptic tweets have wreaked havoc on Tesla's stock price since his first announcement last Tuesday. After surging to an all-time high of $389 shortly after Musk said "funding secured," shares have since given up the entirety of their gains.

Shares sank another 4% on Wednesday, as low as $333, after a Fox Business report said the Securities and Exchange Commission had formally subpoenaed Tesla over the tweets. The report follows Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reports that the top stock regulator was investigating the tweets.

Goldman's confirmation has brought Tesla up from its session lows, and the stock is now trading down about 4%, at $336. Tesla is now up about 5% since the beginning of the year.

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