Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook refused to take a meeting years ago to go over acquiring Tesla Inc., Elon Musk stated on Tuesday.
Tesla CEO Musk stated in a tweet that he reached out to Apple throughout the “darkest days” of improvement of his company’s Model 3 to speak about a attainable deal. Musk stated he planned to go over the possibility of promoting Tesla to Apple for one particular-tenth of its existing worth, indicating a valuation of about $60 billion.
In 2017, Tesla burned money as it ramped up output of its mass-marketplace Model 3 electric car. Musk told personnel then at the company’s Fremont, California, plant that it faced a period of “production hell” for six months or longer. Weeks soon after producing that statement, he tweeted about sleeping on the roof of a factory as he attempted to resolve bottlenecks.
During the darkest days of the Model 3 plan, I reached out to Tim Cook to go over the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our existing worth). He refused to take the meeting.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2020
That occurred about the exact same time Apple decided to shift from improvement of a complete-fledged Tesla competitor to an underlying self-driving auto method. In current years, Apple has hired a quantity of ex-Tesla executives who specialize in drive train, auto interior and self-driving technologies. It has also acquired providers that specialize in self-driving auto improvement, indicating that the corporation is after once more thinking of getting into the marketplace.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on Musk’s remarks. Tesla did not reply to a request for a comment on the timing of the supply Musk described.
Shares of Apple and Tesla have surged considering that the starting of 2017. Tesla has gained more — roughly 1,400% — but is nevertheless worth significantly less than a third of Apple’s marketplace capitalization. This week, Apple’s stock has climbed, though Tesla has slipped on a Reuters report that Apple is aiming to create a driverless auto for shoppers in 2024.
Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Apple shifted leadership of its auto project to John Giannandrea from former leading engineer Bob Mansfield, indicating its self-driving technologies and artificial intelligence concentrate.
Musk’s comment about Apple came a day soon after Tesla joined Apple in the benchmark S&P 500 Index, capping a year in which its stock has surged. Investors have bid up the shares as the corporation has posted 5 consecutive quarters of profit.
Tesla’s travails continued into 2018 when Musk tweeted he had “funding secured” to take the corporation private. As a consequence, he agreed to spend $20 million to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but nevertheless faces an investor lawsuit. Tesla shares are up about 800% considering that that tweet.
Am thinking of taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
(Updates with Tesla addition to S&P 500 index in penultimate paragraph.)
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