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Summary
- Tesla owner Elon Musk sought to sell his company to Apple a few years back but was refused a meeting with their CEO
- Tesla Inc has grown in the last few years and has become the most valuable automaker in the world
- Apple is gradually entering the electric car space and is presently testing different types of battery types to develop cars.
It was the darkest days for Elon Musk, and he had no options but to sell his company. But he could not as Apple Inc CEO didn’t have the time. Musk, the CEO of California-based electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), on Tuesday, tweeted that in 2017 when he was struggling with Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle, he wanted to sell the company to Apple Inc at 1/10 of its present valuation.
But CEO Tim Cook refused to discuss the acquisition. If the deal had taken place between the two technology giants, Apple could have acquired Tesla for one-tenth of its market value, which is around $600 billion today, Musk said after reports are coming in that Apple will be launching its very own electric cars by 2024.
Also read: Apple on the road? Tech giant eyes car production by 2024
Tesla had invested heavily to increase the production of its mass-market Model 3 electric car technology during 2017. In the process, Tesla had burnt a lot of cash and was in serious financial trouble. The California-based automotive company had to face many hardships and bottlenecks in developing the new-age technology for about six months or longer. In addition, production of Model 3 led to production delays and delivery concerns.
Also read: Tesla Share Price at Record high, EV Leader Enters S&P 500 with a bang
The company witnessed bottom-line growth in 2018 and has gone from strength to strength since then to become the most valuable automaker in the world in recent times. Moreover, Tesla has got another feather in its cap as it recently got admission to the S&P 500 index.
Also read: Discourage polluting vehicles and subsidise electric vehicles
Apple ventured into car production from scratch in 2014 with a project called Titan. However, the progress was uneven. According to some media reports, Apple has closely followed Tesla’s electric car technology. Apple is reportedly testing different types of battery types to develop cars that can cover medium to long distances.
The electric vehicle market is still at a growing stage. However, with the presence of the world’s biggest technology giants in the space makes it very competitive. While Apple is focused on developing self-driving cars, Alphabet is focused on developing driverless Robo-taxis.
Additionally, these companies do not have a global manufacturing setup as well. However, it would be interesting to see how these tech giants would manage the mass production of these new-age cars, which seem to be a mix of engineering mechanics coupled with battery technology and advanced operating systems packaged together.
Auto manufacturing is a complex business, and it is not easy for a technology company to put its resources in one business that is at a nascent stage and that too for a very competitive one. This is probably why Apple did not consider investing in Tesla Inc at that point in time.
