Tesla shareholders approve $2.6bn Solarcity merger
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has won shareholder approval for a $2.6bn deal to buy SolarCity, a solar panel manufacturer in which he is the largest shareholder. The takeover will expand the electric carmaker’s clean energy business, but some opposed the move citing a conflict of interest. However, a reported 85% of shareholders not affiliated with the energy business voted to approve the merger.
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Elon Musk has succeeded in combining two parts of his business empire, as investors in Tesla Motors and in the solar panel maker SolarCity agreed on Thursday to a merger.

Shareholders of each company voted at their respective meetings. But the question was always whether investors in Tesla would approve a takeover of the embattled solar company, which had been seen as a bailout of sorts.

But in the end, Tesla shareholders placed their bets on the billionaire entrepreneur. The carmaker announced that more than 85 percent of its independent shareholders — that is, those unaffiliated with Mr. Musk, who holds leadership positions at both companies — voted in favor of the deal.

Putting the two together will yield a green-energy company whose products include electric cars and solar panels for homes.