Tesla Motors is perhaps the most successful automotive startup in the last half-century, but in the world of business, just about everything is for sale.
Of course, the best reason to buy a company is to improve your own profitability. In fact, it’s been speculated that some automaker, like General Motors, or perhaps a tech company, such as Apple, might buy Tesla Motors, but it doesn’t seem that founder and CEO Elon Musk is ready to part with his baby, at least not yet.
Elon Musk seems to be in Tesla Motors for the long term, seeing as he’s got some big plans for the company. Really, amongst automakers, it’s one of the smallest-producing companies in the world, although one of the most-valuable. It’s been a long road for Tesla Motors, but I don’t think that the company’s gotten to its real profitability stage yet. True, the company is worth over $25 billion dollars, but what will happen when the rumored Tesla Model E comes, ready for the masses?
Still, there have been secret-ish talks between Tesla Motors and Apple, which might seem to put them in the same room for buyout talks. On the other hand, we’ve seen some touchscreen OS, rating from barely-intelligible to pure genius. How great would Apple’s iOS be, in combination with the Tesla Model S’ giant touchscreen interface? Maybe future Tesla Motors vehicles will feature a more iOS-like touchscreen interface experience?
Of course, Apple’s not the only company with possible ties, and the finances, to purchase a successful company like Tesla Motors. Google has also been toying with automotive technology, including gesture-based cabin controls and autonomous vehicles. If Tesla Motors is sold at all, and it doesn’t seem like it will, it would have to go to a tech company. Right now, automakers just don’t have the vision it takes to keep a tech company like Tesla Motors going.
Photo credit: Foter / CC BY-SA
