Tesla and its headline-stealing CEO Elon Musk had a wild August.

The month began with the electric car company reporting second-quarter earnings and Musk apologizing for some recent ill-advised outbursts. But a week later, the Tesla and SpaceX founder took to the social media platform to announce that he wanted to take the company private.

It set off a media firestorm that consumed the business news cycle for weeks. But near the end of August, Musk had reversed his position on going private. Here's how the drama played out on CNBC.