Many would be surprised to know that SpaceX and Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk once offered to sell the company’s electric automobile division to Apple CEO Tim Cook at one-tenth of the company’s current market value but Tim refused to meet him. The offer was made during the company’s struggling phase back in 2017.
Those were the “darkest days” for the Tesla Model 3, Musk posted in a tweet, and that he wanted to sell his company out of desperation.
“During the darkest days of the Model 3 programme, 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,” Musk said in a tweet.
Strange, if true.
– Tesla already uses iron-phosphate for medium range cars made in our Shanghai factory.
– A monocell is electrochemically impossible, as max voltage is ~100X too low. Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2020
The Tesla boss had said during a media interview back in 2018 that his electric car startup was close to death within “single-digit weeks”.
Neither Apple not its CEO have commented on Musk’s tweet. Tesla CEO’s reaction on Twitter came as reports resurfaced that Apple is planning to introduce its first electric, autonomous car in 2024.
Tesla nearly went bankrupt
Musk had previously said in a statement that the company nearly went bankrupt in 2008, the year he took over as CEO, and that at the time Tesla had “less than a 10% likelihood to succeed.”
One of Tesla’s highest-selling car, the Model 3, survived that tough phase and the company went on to add the Model Y SUV and the recently launched Cybertruck.
The second-richest person
Musk has been on a roll ever since the pandemic hit the globe as he went on to surpass Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in the world.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index last month put the Tesla chief executive — with a $127.9 billion fortune above Gates at $127.7 billion — for the first time.
Tesla was able to manufacture 145,000 vehicles and made deliveries for 139,300 in the third quarter of this year. Of that number, Tesla produced under 17,000 Model S and X vehicles, delivering 15,200 of them.
Musk has spent most of his life in California and now he has finally relocated to Texas, calling California ‘complacent’. Tesla is building its next factory in Austin.
The move to Texas makes sense for him as it has no state income tax while California has the highest tax regime in the country.
–with inputs from IANS.
