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Apple 'Exploring Move Into Electric Cars'

posted by mattie_p on Wednesday February 19 2014, @07:34PM   
from the when-all-you-have-is-$160-billion dept.

AudioGuy writes:

"Adrian Perica is a very busy man. Over the past 18 months, the mergers and acquisitions chief at Apple has been scouring the globe looking for deals, snatching up everything from search engines and data analytics to mapping software and motion tracking chips.

A source tells The Chronicle that Perica met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Cupertino last spring at around the same time analysts suggested Apple acquire the electric car giant.

The newspaper has also learned that Apple is heavily exploring medical devices, specifically sensor technology that can help predict heart attacks. Led by Tomlinson Holman, a renowned audio engineer who invented THX and 10.2 surround sound, Apple is exploring ways to predict heart attacks by studying the sound blood makes at it flows through arteries.

Taken together, Apple's potential forays into automobiles and medical devices, two industries worlds away from consumer electronics, underscore the company's deep desire to move away from iPhones and iPads and take big risks.

Good grief. Is the 'iTesla next in the 'i' line?"

• Battery collaboration more likely Battery collaboration more likely (Score: 4, Interesting) by lubricus on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:20PM

  by lubricus (232) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:20PM (#2915)

  Apple might have been interested in buying Tesla a year ago when it's market cap was much lower (can't remember exactly, but it was around 10 Billion).

  What's more likely is that they'll collaborate on a new battery factory. They'll both benefit: Apple will bring the capital, Tesla the battery technology.

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  ... sorry about the typos

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• Re:Battery collaboration more likely (Score: 2) by lubricus on Friday February 21 2014, @07:35AM

  by lubricus (232) on Friday February 21 2014, @07:35AM (#4150)

  More specifically, Tesla likes to raise capital by selling new shares when the stock price is high.

  My prediction is that within the next two weeks or so, Tesla will release news that they are selling a few billion dollars in new shares, most of which will be bought by Apple, (but some by Elon himself, he seems to like to do that), and the capital will be used to build the new "giga" plant, which will produce batteries for Tesla and Apple. Apple will thus join the ranks of ... I think it was Toyota and BMW as stakeholders in Tesla.

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  ... sorry about the typos

  Parent