Tesla was all over the news recently when it was reported that the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, was in talks with Apple. Some hinted at a possible acquisition deal. Musk has now confirmed that he had ‘conversations’ with Apple but says that an acquisition is very unlikely.
The rumors started after a San Francisco Chronicle report recently stated that Elon Musk had met with Apple’s head of acquisitions, Adrian Perica. Many construed it as a hint that Apple was gearing up to acquire Tesla. It did make a certain sense, since Tesla is to auto industry what Apple is to the smartphone world.
But Musk has now come on record about the whole episode. According to him, “If one or more companies had approached us last year about such things there’s no way we could really comment on that. We had conversations with Apple, I can’t comment on whether those revolved around any kind of acquisition.”
Another possibility, cited by some analysts, is that Apple and Tesla may forge a partnership. Such a deal would result in Tesla working on integrating Apple’s iOS platform into its electric cars. Tesla may have plans of a huge lithium-ion battery plant and some claim that Apple wants in on the project. But most of this is speculation without any definite basis.
Either way, it is nearly impossible to confirm exactly what the executives from two companies spoke about. What we know for sure is that Musk doesn’t foresee an acquisition of Tesla in near future. His statement categorically rules out this possibility, “If there was a scenario where it seemed like it would be more likely that we would be able to create the mass market sort of affordable, compelling car then possibly it would make sense to entertain those discussions. I don’t currently see any scenario that would improve that probability, so that’s why I think it’s very unlikely.”
Source: Bloomberg Television
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