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Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks to members of the media at an Apple event in San Francisco, California on March 9, 2015. Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks to members of the media at an Apple event in San Francisco, California on March 9, 2015.
Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
Apple is getting into the luxury market in a big way with its new Watch. But apparently that wasn’t enough for a few investors at Apple’s annual meeting today.
One shareholder told Cook, “I’d like to see you guys buy Tesla,” according to the Financial Times’ Tim Bradshaw. Cook’s response was unequivocally equivocal:
“We don’t really have a relationship with Tesla … I’d love Tesla to pick up CarPlay,” Cook reportedly said, a reference to the in-car version of Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. “Was that a good way to avoid the question?”
But Cook may not be able to avoid the question for long. In addition to CarPlay, reports that Apple is secretly working on designing its own electric car have fueled (driven?) loads of speculation and analysis pointing to the conclusion that the company putting its mind to four-wheeled transportation isn’t such a bad idea. Apple is good at design. Apple is good at manufacturing. Apple is rich. So why not add a few tires to the product mix?
Still, Tesla has been rolling innovative vehicles off its robot-powered assembly line for years, while Apple’s alleged car is still on the drawing board. And with $178 billion in cash at last counting, Apple has enough money to buy Tesla (current market cap $23.9 billion) many times over. For the moment, Apple may be content to peel off Tesla’s engineers. But some investors seem to think Apple should just get on with it and absorb the whole company.
“Am I insane to imagine something might happen here?” another shareholder—and Tesla Model S owner—reportedly said to Cook.
“Let me think if there’s another way to do a non-answer,” Cook replied, before not answering.
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