Photo: The B Word
Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins recently released his book, POWER PLAY: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century.
The describes itself as “the outrageous inside story of Elon Musk and Tesla’s bid to build the world’s greatest car.”
But one passage making the rounds is about Musk’s meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, about the iPhone maker acquiring the automaker.
As explained by the L.A. Times:
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk are talking on the phone. The 2016 unveiling of the make-it-or-break-it Model 3 is coming soon, but Tesla is in serious financial trouble. Cook has an idea: Apple buys Tesla.
Musk is interested, but one condition: “I’m CEO.”
Sure, says Cook. When Apple bought Beats in 2014, it kept on the founders, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
No, Musk says. Apple. Apple CEO.
“F— you” Cook says, and hangs up.
Musk responded to this wild story on Friday morning to say, “Cook & I have never spoken or written to each other ever. There was a point where I requested to meet with Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla. There were no conditions of acquisition proposed whatsoever.”
“He refused to meet. Tesla was worth about 6% of today’s value,” said Musk.
When asked to comment on the passage above, Apple told The Verge to refer to Cook’s previous interview with Kara Swisher and the New York Times, when the CEO said, “You know, I’ve never spoken to Elon, although I have great admiration and respect for the company he’s built.”
Higgins managed to make his book both false *and* boring 🤣🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2021
Musk also said on Friday, “Higgins managed to make his book both false *and* boring.”
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
During Tesla’s recent Q2 earnings call, Musk took a couple of jabs at Apple. Earlier today, Musk also called Apple’s App Store tax a “de facto global tax on the internet.” When someone purchases an in-app purchase using the Tesla iOS app, Apple takes a 30% cut.
Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2021
