Elon Musk: Tesla will stay a publicly traded company

Tesla's brief flirtation with a plan to go private, announced by founder Elon Musk in a tweet earlier this month, is over, at least for now. "I met with Tesla’s Board of Directors yesterday and let them know that I believe the better path is for Tesla to remain public," Musk wrote in a statement posted Friday night. "The Board indicated that they agree."

Why it matters: Tesla, which makes electric cars, is an iconic company on the road to greener transportation — and a bellwether for whether Silicon Valley's startup ideology can transform other industries. More than Musk's personal vindication hangs on its fate.