Tesla and Apple: a marriage that could have been made
Source: HW Upgrade added 23rd Dec 2020
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, remembers the difficult years of Model 3 production by signaling its intention to propose Tesla to Apple. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, did not even deign him to a meeting
of Paolo Corsini published on 23 December 2020 , at 09: 21 in the Technology channel
Apple Tesla
It could have represented the most important acquisition involving technology and automotive , but it did not happen: that of Tesla from Apple, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted at in a Twitter post. We know how it ended: Tesla remained independent, overcoming the problems it was experiencing during the 2017 benefiting from an assessment that reached new heights over the course of 2020.
Musk allegedly tried to contact Apple , and specifically its CEO Tim Cook, during the more difficult period linked to the development of one’s Model 3 without however receiving a chance to meet . We recall how in those years Tesla was incurring a very high cost for the development of this car, running the serious risk of going bankrupt: Tesla was burning cash, coming very close to completely running out of cash in an attempt to solve some related problems to the production of the first series of Model 3 vehicles.
Musk would have liked to propose to Cook to buy Tesla at a value of approximately 1 / 10 of the current valuation of the company : considering a current capitalization exceeding 500 billion dollars the ventilated figure could be that of 60 billions of dollars. Tesla shares were traded in 2017 between a minimum of 42 dollars up to a maximum of approximately 70 dollars; the scoros 18 December 2020 reached an all-time high at 695 dollars.
During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1 / 10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2020
Fate then led Tesla to overcome the problems related to the initial production of the Model 3 obtaining an excellent commercial success, which led to a growth of its stock market valuation as well as positive quarterly economic results. Apple, meanwhile, would be hard at work to present a self-driving vehicle to debut during the 2024 but of this, as for most of the future development projects of the American company, we speak only on the basis of indiscretions and not direct official information.