Elon Musk: Google’s Alphabet had ‘standing interest’ in buying Tesla

Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG, +1.94% GOOGL, +1.81% had a “standing interest” in buying Tesla Inc. TSLA, +7.74%, Chief Executive Elon Musk said in court Monday, referring to an earlier deposition. That factored into Musk’s decision to try to take Tesla private then, the CEO said. Musk is under cross-examination by his lawyer, Alex Spiro, after an hours-long examination by a plaintiff’s attorney in which he said his “funding secured” tweet was “absolutely truthful” as he had initial commitments from a Saudi Arabia investment fund and also could have sold part of his stake in privately held SpaceX.