Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, makes the case that Apple Inc. should use some of its cash pile to acquire Tesla Inc.
He speaks with Bloomberg‘s Jonathan Ferro on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas.”
Munster and his family own shares of Apple, but his firm does not.
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Direct link to video here.
MacDailyNews Take: When Apple wanted to make a smartphone, did they buy Palm, RIM, Motorola, Nokia, etc. or did they simply paradigm shift them into oblivion?
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Apple-branded Orange Teslas? Coming to a dutch ecstasy dealer near you.
I love Apple and I love Tesla. There’s no way I would want Apple to buy Tesla at this point. Maybe they could do some sort of JV on the software side (unlikely) or Apple could invest in Tesla’s energy and/or battery business, but there is zero chance I’d want Apple to control Tesla.
Tesla is out of this world visionary and risk taking…and is executing. Apple is operationally efficient under Tim’s leadership but not a significant risk taker. Combining the two companies today would be like mixing oil and water.
I wouldn’t mind if Apple buys Tesla and Musk becomes the new Apple CEO. Like you said, TimidTim is not a risk taker.
apple should buy IBM and expand into enterprise AI/AR, deep solutions for the real future vs consumer gadgetry
I like your idea…would you mind expounding on it? I, too, feel that IBM would be the best purchase. IBM’s patent portfolio alone is justification for purchasing the company. I can only imagine what Apple could do with Watson.
I tend to agree and above all the last thing Apple needs is something new that needs special focus to interfere in its core business and management focus. They should do as they have with AR and buy and/or work closely with specialist companies that can add to their own vision and expertise. With countries now talking about banning IC vehicals within a 20+ year time frame it means there is massive opportunity for new advanced technology to slot into the sector especially in co-ordination with self drive and existing car makers may even be seen as yesterday’s news in that environment so big opportunities exist beyond what Tesla can and will offer. However they will be softening up the market perfectly for a company like Apple to enter and exploit as it will go well beyond the car itself into the whole business of ownership and usage that starts to look much more like Uber than Tesla.
Tesla survives because of government subsidies and tax credits.
Musk is a snakeoil salesman.
The U.S. Congress and President Trump should abolish the incentives for Tesla. Get rid of the $7,500 per car subsidy. Same goes for California’s ZEV regime.
Let’s see the “genius” Musk compete in a subsidy-free market.
As an object, I think Teslas are beautiful, but I’ve often been puzzled with the market’s infatuation with the company since profits are rare and often low.
Beautiful objects they are …. but they are also Amazing cars fantastically engineered .
“Musk is a snakeoil salesman.”??
You consider Tesla to be snake oil?
Wow….
41 voters think tesla is snake oil
.. as cearly can be seen above.
Or they are
the childish politically dogmotized losers reacting to discourse in other threads.. .. Proving my point !?
I dont mind down votes and debates.
But I mind hypocrites and foolishness.
Pathetic and lost Some of u are ! ..
Yet so foolishly proud.
“Or they are
the childish politically dogmotized losers reacting to discourse in other threads.. ”
I’ll go with this one. No worries and welcome to the FAKE down vote target club …
Teslas get the same subsidies/credits that any other car manufacture producing similar electric vehicles get.
As far as getting rid of the subsidies/credits altogether… sure, we could spend that money on wars defending oil supplies, while other countries develop next generation vehicles which we’ll eventually end up importing.
Your party celebrated the giving away of $3 Billion taxpayer Dollars (state of Wisconsin via Snot Walker) for about 3,000 jobs. Some of those pay barely over minimum wage. It is by far the largest subsidy ever paid by Wisconsin for any manufacturing plant.
Smells like corporate welfare and Trump, Walker and Ryan were celebrating it. Real Conservatives or Libertarians would be outraged at the giveaway to a foreign corporation for a few thousand assembly jobs. In a capitalist economy FoxConn would locate based upon market factors- not subsidies from government.
Back to Mr Musk- he has created more wealth in this country than almost anyone alive today. SpaceX can put a Satellite in orbit using a completely American rocket to include the motor. United Launch Alliance is dependent upon Russian rocket motors. Until Jeff Bezos Blue Origin starts shipping rocket motors, SpaceX is the only way America can get to space without Russian supplied motors.
Meanwhile, Tesla can sell you today the world’s best electric cars, access to the best charging network, the ability to buy grid power off peak and store it in a power wall or even roll your own from the Sun. I’m guessing you hate Musk because he shows the Republican talking points about Solar and electric cars to be a Koch funded lie.
The shift to renewables for generation and electric cars has begun and costs are falling rapidly. One of the reasons renewables are coming on strong is the jump start in tax credits, loans and subsidy given as part of the Obama Stimulus and Renewable Energy Programs. Bitch about Solyndra all you want, most of the money yielded great results and we will be reaping the benefits for years to come.
In parts of Texas, renewables are so plentiful and cheap you can have unmetered electricity at night because it is cheaper to give away the excess than to shut down the Wind Farms. If you have you can load up at night and stay off the grid during the daylight hours of peak demand. Try doing that with Coal or Natural Gas powered electric generation. If you go see Al Gore’s new movie- sneak peeking this weekend and broad release next Friday, you can hear all about it.
In the end, we will see Al Gore was right, Obama’s renewable energy program and stimulus investments were good, and Republicans were on the wrong side of history and technology. Your party should change it’s symbol from the Elephant to the Dinosaur with it’s head in the ground like an Ostrich- behind the times and willfully ignorant.
BTW- how’s that repeal and replace day one working for you? 2018 Election Day is not that far away and the Republican Clown Car is in the ditch. Can’t wait to see the Republicans raise the debt ceiling with Republican votes shortly. It’s easy to whine and throw sand in the gears. But now you have to govern and you can’t blame it on Obama or the non-existent “Democrat” Party.
well said
Effy, you appear to believe that only the companies that you despise have ever received government subsidies. In truth, you would be hard pressed to find a company that has not received some sort of subsidy. Your buddies in the Republican Party certainly enjoy greasing the palms of their business associates and major donors like big oil. You may have heard something about those tax breaks and subsidies??
You may not like Musk, Effy, but the guy has accomplished a lot against great odds. SpaceX’s success is nothing short of a miracle, considering the history of failure in penetrating the space launch industry and the favoritism given by the U.S. Government to the incumbents in the military-industrial complex, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
I certainly do not agree with your social and political beliefs. But it may surprise you to learn that a primary reason that I do not like you is because you are irrational and suffer from mental ossification and tunnel-vision. You refuse to consider that you might be in error in anything, and you only accept information that supports your worldview. Indeed, you and Trump are very much alike in those regards. You may consider that to be a compliment. But I assure you that it is a highly derogatory comparison.
polite applause.
unless tesla creates patentable breakthroughs it will fail as a big toy car maker
The subsidies are only for the first 1 or 200,000 cars. Tessa will soon exceed this and the subsidy will go away. Will you be happy then?
And Bil Oil is subsidy-free?? ALL transportation systems depend on govt. subsidy: for roads, airports, trains…even bike paths and sidewalks. And we’re all sacrificing the health of our kids and our planet by supporting carbon-based fuels. The tax credits are helping us move in the right direction. That’s what it takes because some people only care about money.
Yes!!! Hell YES! Let’s pollute and suffocate US citizens: end of wars, meddling in foreign business. That’s a GREAT idea!
i used to think this was a foolish suggestion, but I’m not so sure. If there is to be an Apple Car, they will need a massive manufacturing presence. Automobiles cannot be outsourced to some gadget maker in China.
Of course there are other options, but this isn’t totally crazy.
It occurs to me that a person who would pay $100,000 for a Model S wouldn’t be put off at a price tag of $120,000.
trouble is, the number of people who can afford that kind of capital outlay for a car is pretty limited.
most folks have other priorities, like paying off mortgages or putting kids through college.
Tesla isn’t a “massive manufacturing precedence”.
Read Asymco.com (specifically Asymcar series)…
Googling, the numbers for Tesla appear to be:
About 50K units in 2015
About 80K units last year.
Worldwide car market is about 80M.
So, Tesla has about a tenth of 1%.
To affect the industry in the way Tesla/Musk espouse is their intention, then they really need at least an order of magnitude more.
Apple is probably looking at rethinking the production process so that when they make a move they are targeting 1% like they did with the iPhone: 800K units per year.
So far Tesla hasn’t really innovated around the production process, much less disrupted incumbents — traditional approaches to production are still very much in play at Tesla, and the incumbents have time to improve their offerings along similar trajectories.
The metrics of competition need to be changed, and that is no doubt what Apple is looking at, along with preparing the ability to produce some 800K units.
Why? Tesla hasn’t made any profit to date, that’s not the Apple way. Jeez….
Tesla’s are designed for, and appeal to, Apple’s target customer.
Tesla’s are not just gimmicky electric vehicles, they are BMW, Lexus quality built electric vehicles offering first rate engineering, design, comfort and performance.
Subsidies do not last forever, they expire once the manufacturer has delivered 250,000 units. That metric is fast approaching for Tesla. Enter the Model 3 at $35,000.
Although I believe Tesla stock is quite overpriced, I think Apple should make an offer for the company. I like the cars and I hope Tesla vehicles continue to be made. However, I’m not sure if Apple could make Tesla into a profitable brand. Although I’m not particularly a Musk fanboi, I would like to see his dream come true about replacing fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles.
I think Tesla is right in line with Apple’s way of thinking. Unless someone can offer a better way of Apple getting into the building and selling electric vehicles, I think Tesla is the way to go. Everything is already in place for Apple. It seems like a ready-made solution. The Apple/Tesla name should definitely have wide appeal.
Gene. Seriously. You can’t be that stupid. Apple should stop buying itself or others and invest everything to the technology that they get from the Andromeda.
Keep the real HQ in the Apple Park and have a paper one in the Estonia. That is what you tell to your investors.
No. Just no.
[Skipping over my usual life-at-Kodak horror lecture]
One thing Apple usually gets right is to stay out of markets where they have no expertise or insight. Apple has attempted to work with Tesla on projects, including batteries. That makes sense, where there is a merging of expertise. I could certainly see the two companies working together with autonomy in their individual expert fields.