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posted by martyb on Tuesday August 28 2018, @04:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-the-price-is-right dept.

Opinion: Now would be the time for Apple to buy Tesla, and kick Musk out of the driver's seat

Elon Musk has put an end to his idea to take Tesla private, but still has a tough road ahead to meet profitability and production projections, especially as Tesla handles expected investigations and lawsuits stemming from Musk's ridiculous "funding secured" misadventure. Apple, meanwhile, has billions in cash to burn, manufacturing prowess, obvious interests in entering the car market and finding new form factors beyond the smartphone — and the pull to tell Musk his services are no longer needed.

[...] Apple does have a lot more money than Tesla, which is running out of cash fast. It also has a chief executive in Tim Cook who knows about dealing with supply chains, mass manufacturing and all the other processes that sound easy when Musk describes them but are nearly impossible when Tesla attempts to perform them.

[...] On Monday, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster played down the theories that Apple might attempt some sort of deal, saying that if Tesla becomes profitable, the notion is just a fairy tale. "If we're wrong, and Tesla fails to reach profitability in the next year, Apple gains the upper hand and becomes the most likely investor or buyer," Munster wrote in a blog post.

[...] Apple knows a little something about building a strong profit margin with a premium product sold through its own retail outlets, and could handle many of the other issues that will continue to beset Musk and Tesla. In his now legendary tearful interview with the New York Times, Musk admitted that Tesla has sought another executive to handle operations, and even said that "anyone who can do a better job" could have the CEO role.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @07:45PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @07:45PM (#727476)

    You're condemning Apple/iOS for not supporting hardware long enough, yet you offer no proof, nor any comparisons to Android. Clearly you don't like Apple, which is fine and dandy. But if you're going to cast aspersions you should at least back it up with something more than "there are too many models and colors of Android phones to say Android is better".

    Just a tip: if you're going to claim size, shape and color are preventing you from saying "Manufacturer ABC supports new versions of Android for X years" then maybe you should make the same statement about the size, shape and colors of iPhones.

  • (Score: 2) by toddestan on Wednesday August 29 2018, @03:41AM

    by toddestan (4982) on Wednesday August 29 2018, @03:41AM (#727666)

    The problem with Android is that it's not very good either. It just manages to be slightly less worse than iOS with its walled garden, closed ecosystem, poor selection of devices, and way overpriced hardware. The entire mobile market is such crap I was actually disappointed when Microsoft exited it as it desperately needs another player, even it is Microsoft.

    Perhaps you should go back and try to address the points brought up by original poster brought up about Apple's computers, which you completely ignored and dragged iOS/Android into the conversation instead.