Tesla had VW funding lined up to go private, report says

At the end of the day Musk did not want to give up control to a competitor

After Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that he planned to take the company private, investment advisers hooked a big fish to provide the funding, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

In a long report about the Tesla board's deliberations over taking the company private, the Journalrevealed that investment advisers from Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake had lined up to $30 billion of financing for the privatization deal.

Two investors would have been Volkswagen and Silver Lake itself, sources familiar with the deal told the Journal. Musk ultimately balked at the proposal, which would have asked him to relinquish some of his control.

Tesla declined to comment on the report.