Elon Musk Says He Once Approached Apple CEO About Buying Tesla
23 December 2020 - 9:25AM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Higgins
Tesla Inc.'s effort to bring out the Model 3 brought the
electric car company near collapse. Now Chief Executive Elon Musk
has divulged a new twist: He says he contacted his Apple Inc.
counterpart, Tim Cook, to save his company.
"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)," Mr. Musk said in a tweet Tuesday.
But the Apple CEO, he said, "refused to take the meeting."
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Musk revealed the latest detail as he worked to question
whether Apple is serious about bringing out an electric car of its
own amid a new report the company is pushing for 2024
production
On Twitter, Mr. Musk called the report "strange, if true."
Mr. Musk on Tuesday didn't specify exactly when he approached
Mr. Cook.
Launched in 2017, the Model 3 proved harder to build than Mr.
Musk expected. Costly delays mounted before Tesla eventually worked
through production and delivery snags in 2018, when it posted
profitable quarters in the second half of that year. It continued
to struggle the early part of the following year, however.
In August 2018, Mr. Musk shocked investors with the idea of
taking the electric-car maker private in what would have been the
biggest buyout in history. Mr. Musk at the time wrote on Twitter:
"Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." The
deal didn't happen, and the tweet spurred a Securities and Exchange
Commission probe and legal battles with the regulator.
By the third quarter of 2019, Tesla had turned the corner and
kicked off a string of quarterly profits, exciting investors who
have sent the company's shares soaring and made the company the
most valuable auto maker in the world with a value of more than
$600 billion. It was added to the S&P 500 index, a key
benchmark, on Monday.
Excitement around the company has allowed Tesla to raise
billions of dollars for what Mr. Musk has described as his war
chest.
Mr. Musk didn't respond to questions about his latest tweet.
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 22, 2020 17:10 ET (22:10 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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