It was rumored for quite a long time that Apple was interested in making a full-fledged car. Since the company has no experience making cars, it was also rumored that Apple would use its massive cash pile to just acquire a car manufacturer and hit the ground running. Many have felt that Tesla would be a good acquisition for Apple and an analyst is now claiming that Apple did make a “serious bid” for Tesla back in 2013.
Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin claimed while speaking to CNBC that Apple had made a serious bid to acquire Tesla in 2013 by offering around $240 per share. It’s not known just how far the negotiations went at that point in time because no formal bid was ever made by the company.
Irwin does say that he made “multiple checks” with more than one source and that he has “complete confidence” that this information is credible. We can only take his word for it because there are no other reports including from 2013 which would suggest that there were talks between Apple and Tesla for an acquisition.
Apple’s car ambitions with Project Titan were later shifted to self-driving technology as opposed to developing actual cars. Whether the company may want to look at Tesla as an acquisition target again remains questionable. However, with Tesla now hovering at just over $200 per share, it’s a considerably more attractive deal compared to the $240 it’s claimed to have offered six years ago.
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