Trillionaire Elon Musk bought the assets of Jacksonville-based APR Energy, according to a Federal Trade Commission filing.
Duos Technologies Group Inc., which owned 5% of the business, disclosed the sale in a May 28 Securities and Exchange Commission filing but did not name the buyer. No other announcement of the sale was made.
However, a notice on the FTC’s website shows the agency issued an early termination notice for the deal May 14, meaning there would be no further antitrust review.
The FTC notice lists Elon Musk as the buyer of the entity called New APR Energy LLC.
There were no other details of the sale in the notice, and an FTC spokesperson said the agency does not disclose additional information on the applications.
A spokesperson for APR said by email the company has no comment at this time.
Jacksonville-based Duos said in its SEC filing it received net proceeds of $50.4 million for its 5% stake, indicating the total value of the deal was at least $1 billion.
Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, did not respond to emails sent to its media contact address.
Besides making automobiles, Tesla has an energy subsidiary which provides services including solar.
The subsidiary also has a business called Megapack, which is “a powerful, integrated battery system that provides clean, reliable, cost-effective energy storage to help stabilize the grid and prevent outages,” according to the Tesla website.
“Megapack is changing the way the grid is powered. Operating in over 65 countries, Megapack provides critical grid support globally and can support multi-GWh (gigawatt hours) projects,” it says.
APR Energy deploys fast-track power plants at sites around the world, making its business a possible fit with Megapack.
Fortress Investment Group acquired the assets of APR in late 2024. The business officially became known as New APR Energy but the company describes itself as doing business as APR Energy.
As it acquired the assets, Fortress entered into a two-year agreement with Duos to manage and deploy the assets.
Duos is exiting its main previous business of providing railroad safety technology to focus on providing energy services for data centers.
A Fortress spokesman said by email he could not comment on the sale to Musk.
APR was a publicly traded company before a buyout by a group of private equity firms in 2016 for about $250 million. The investors put an additional $200 million in capital into the company after the buyout.
APR was sold again in February 2020 for $750 million to Atlas Corp., a Hong Kong-based holding company.
Atlas sold the assets to Fortress when it decided to get out of the energy business.
APR had offices in a building anchored by Duos at 7660 Centurion Parkway. But the company in January received a permit from the city to build out headquarters in Centurion Centre I at 10375 Centurion Parkway at southeast Butler Boulevard and Interstate 95.