Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to reveal that “during the darkest days of the Model 3 programme,” he offered Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the purchase of Tesla.
Cook, however, refused to meet him.
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
Musk had previously spilled that Tesla was “single-digit weeks” away from collapse in 2017.
After starting production of the Model 3 in 2017, Tesla was struggling to keep up with production volumes amid a high number of orders. In April 2018, its capitalisation fell by a quarter, and the company had to take emergency measures to rectify the situation.
Subsequently, Tesla has repeatedly reported losses, but continued to confidently increase car production. For the first time, the company entered net profit only at the end of the second quarter of 2018, but these figures remained insignificant due to investments in production facilities.
The news about the botched business meeting between Musk and Cook has been met with all sorts of social media reactions from Tesla and Apple fans.
Good luck to Apple, they'll probably buy Tesla's and put a skin over the top to make it all Maccy, they used to be unique but borrow everyone elses kit these days.
— Mad Hatter (@MadHatt60529652) December 23, 2020
Tesla will be more valuable than Apple one day! We just need more giga factories and middle class family car ( under $20k). I see all this happening in next 5 years.
— sp (@kevinmallone0) December 23, 2020
Apple would have destroyed Tesla. Tim Cook is not innovator, he's a accountant.
— A DιTΨλ SλHλSRλπ S-HU (@ADITYASTRONOMER) December 23, 2020
If this is actually true then, #TimCook has really missed a great opportunity for @Apple to grow and this might be a really dumb move to refuse initiated help from @elonmusk and @Tesla. #Apple has been on a hit, if it needs to regain the domination they will have to explore more. https://t.co/ftwSPxx2Qj
— Jatin Jain (@23_Prince_) December 23, 2020
Musk shared this information amid the reports that Apple intends to release a self-driving passenger car in 2024. According to the media, Apple is now focusing on developing a battery of its own design, which is a large single-cell battery.
Meanwhile, shares of Tesla ended 6.5 percent lower in its S&P 500 debut, amid news of potential competition from Apple.
