After news broke that Apple might be starting its Project Titan (Apple Car) back up again and could have a revolutionary battery pack, Tesla’s Elon Musk decided to tell a story of his own about how, during the many delays of the Model 3, Musk tried selling Tesla to Apple but Tim Cook refused to even take the meeting.
“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.” said Musk in a recent tweet.
Back in 2017, Tesla was on the brink of collapse, as production delays and setbacks for the Model 3 almost proved too much for the electric. According to Musk himself, Tesla was only weeks away from its demise. Obviously, Tesla was able to survive and even thrive since then, so it’s a good thing for Musk that Cool never took the meeting. Especially now that Musk is considered the second richest man in the world, now.
However, it’s interesting that Cook wouldn’t take the meeting. At the time, Apple had already begun working on its own car, Project Titan, so any assets, technology, tooling or intellectual property Tesla had, which would have been acquired by Apple, would have been massively helpful. Or at least one would think. So it’s a bit odd that Cook wouldn’t even at least entertain the idea. If Cook had bought Tesla at the time, it would have had all of the tooling and manufacturing facilities it would have needed to build electric cars, which will Apple’s biggest hurdle if it does get into the car business.
We don’t know why Cook didn’t take the meeting, as Apple refused to comment. It could be that, at the time, Apple was thinking Project Titan and didn’t feel that acquiring Tesla would make sense. It could be that Cook didn’t want to work with Musk or it could be that maybe Cook and his team at Apple didn’t feel that Tesla was worth buying.
To be honest, we don’t even know if it’s true. Musk isn’t a man to shy away from embellishment. If it is true, though, it will be interesting to see if Cook responds and, if so, why he didn’t at least entertain the idea of Apple buying Tesla.
[Source: The Verge]
