“If it’s truly serious about cars, Apple Inc. should buy Aston Martin Holdings Ltd.,” Alex Webb writes for Bloomberg Gadfly. “For the prestige British carmaker, there’s clear mileage in the idea. Its owners are already planning an initial public offering and its CEO wants a “big brother” partner to help him keep pace with autonomous vehicle projects at much better capitalized rivals. You don’t get any bigger or richer than Apple.”
“The tech giant was reported to have looked at supercar manufacturer McLaren Technology Group Ltd. last year,” Webb writes. “With Apple’s car project appearing rudderless since it was scaled back 18 months ago, Aston could be an eye-catching and relatively cheap way to get back in the game.”
“Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo has 600 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans in its fleet and has ordered thousands more,” Webb writes. “Apple has just 27 cars in California, and it’s unclear to what end… To develop a self-driving car, you need vast data sets to train the system, data you get from fleets of cars roaming the streets. So why wouldn’t Apple team up with one of the autos giants instead? It’s because established carmakers are understandably loathe to hand that kind of data to any Silicon Valley giant. They recognize the existential threat.”
“With less than 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in yearly revenue, Aston’s hope for an IPO value of up to 5 billion pounds looks a little racy,” Webb writes. “While Apple wouldn’t want to overpay (it is notoriously careful on dealmaking), it has $285 billion of cash to play with. A deal would be a much smaller gamble than for, say, Tesla Inc., which Apple is believed to have considered a few years back.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s top brass have bought enough Astons that they should own the company already.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Pay used to buy a $1 million Aston Martin DB5 – October 20, 2016
Apple hires former Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering to work on ‘special project’ – April 19, 2016
No, they should buy Alfa Romeo, which is in the early stages of a very bold renaissance but which needs more capital than it has access to to complete the resurgence. Alfa is far more developed than Aston Martin and would welcome what Apple has to offer.
Alfa is a brand of Fiat Chrysler. It is not a stand alone company.
That is true for now. FCA, the parent, has considered selling it off to a number of outside entities including Chinese buyers. Alfa certainly has not always been linked to Jeep.
Alfa would offer nothing simply a cash dustbin that offers little to Apple one with a poor reputation for quality too despite its improvements of late. Aston Martin, expecially with its link to Red Bull and the world’s best race car designer would offer a far better base from which to generate a quality brand with an almost clean sheet of paper a great name now being pushed into F1 and probably the best car styling dept in the business.
Apple infest in a carbon fuel guzzling company? I don’t think so. Retro is so Outro.
Bloomberg: Aston Martin Surprises with All-Electric Luxury Sedan — March 6, 2018
Concept car. It’s all smoke a mirrors. Nothing real….
Thank you. Excellent catch. Should have known!
Tesla’s are, as any informed person knows, powered by coal and natural gas and even nuclear. Of course there are many who think that electricity comes from a power plug and that is as far as their science education goes.
Most Teslas are sold in California, which means they are also powered by wind and solar and hydro and fruits&nuts. The pollution controls on a modern natural gas powerplant makes it less damaging to the environment than the thousands of individual car engines in various states of repair. So why bring up your pointless speculative bias? Do you support your idiot president proposing more dirty coal powerplants?
Dear Idiot Mike
Coal is good. It powers most of everyone’s electricity around the country. You aware unaware of real energy because you specialize in stupidity. Coal is clean, especially when mined from places like Utah, but then the jackass President Clinton sealed off most of Utah so his rich buddy Riahdy could sell more Indonesian coal. Then the jackass Obama increased the amount of Utah clean coal sealed off by Clinton. Hopefully Trump undoes what the Rapist and the Benghazi Killing Lying President did. At this point Trump has done more good for America than the last 5 Democrat Presidents and all in just one year.
Wow, talk about going off into a political barf fest. We get it that you’re thoroughly soaked in republican Faux news talking points, but clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about. I assume Mike lives in California, where there is a greater than average percentage of renewable energy sources online.
On average across the USA, coal is in steep decline, with MUCH cleaner and cheaper natural gas the most popular source for electricity generation. Economics of fracking killed coal, not your political scapegoats.
On average across the USA, fossil fuels and nuclear provide 85% of the power needs of the US. Coal was in decline because the jackass Barack Obama declared war on coal, the fuel most of the country relies on. This was an insane war since it was a war on the citizens. Fortunately, we have a new President who does not declare war on good and legal industries. Thank God we are not under the Democrat regimes that hate business and also hate the American system of government. Which is why unemployment is at an all time low, stocks are at all time highs, home values are soaring, American businesses are returning manufacturing to America, and America is now the leading energy producer in the world. And not because of windmills and solar panels. Oh yeah, and everyday blue collar workers are getting to keep more of their money and also receiving thousands of dollars in bonuses. And Obamacare is almost dead. All great news.
You are seriously ill informed about the energy industry works as well as delusional about your lunatic president who is so obviously in Russia’s pocket
Did you notice Trump is eager to slap tariffs on metals made primarily in Canada, Mexico, and India — but not on Titanium, which is primarily from Russia?
Wow, true ignorance on display. Coal is not and has never been clean. It’s also not economical in America anywhere especially if you attempt to make “clean coal” as clean as liquid or gaseous fuels. Good luck with that. Coal is in decline, good riddance. Leave it in the ground to become oil or gas for future generations — much more economical to extract, transport, and refine. Any fool can see that, unless one is willfully blind: kent.
After coal is burned, you’re left with coal ash. The ash is full of mercury, cadmium, arsenic and more. Where coal ash is stored, it tends to leak into lakes, streams and water tables. Which results in high rates of cancer and other horrible diseases to humans, animals and plants in the vicinity.
This shouldn’t be a political issue. It is a serious health hazard.
Kent’s comment about our dependence of coal isn’t a sane reason to promote it. It’s the reason we need to replace it with clean energy sources.
So true. I often chastise those who don’t understand Source Energy. – However, that is beside my point.
Get out. Apple would be better off sticking to some company actively building electric cars. Aston Martins are nice and all, but if that’s the case, then Apple should go after McLaren if they want some high performance sports car company to work with. Those are some gorgeous vehicles to own (so I’ve heard).
Anyway, I think the future in cars is heading towards electric vehicles and that’s where I think Apple should be heading to. I’d like Apple to go after a company that’s already interested in electric vehicles so Apple would have a solid base to start from. I haven’t be following Aston Martin lately, so I still picture them as heavy gas guzzlers from the days of the DB 11, Vantage and Vanquish. I could be wrong if they’ve changed direction since then. I’d prefer Apple going after a company possibly directed more towards family-type vehicles. More towards premium mass-market if there’s such a category.
You wouldn’t have to worry about Jony Ive leaving anytime soon if he could start designing cars.
I actually hope Ive moves on.
Apple needs a fresh set of eyes.
Geez, who do you suggest?
Good question, but there is always someone out there.
What a great idea! Then the Apple execs can think about their new car toy while they continue to let the Mac and the Apple Ecosystem decay. I am sure Google, MS and those young bucks waiting to make their mark in technology would love to see Apple fritter away its energy on a car company.
McLaren would be a much more interesting buy for Apple. They are a far more technologically savvy company, who have a good bit of experience with integrating electrics into the powertrain, as well as a name that represents the ultimate in performance.
Italians build lovely high expense to maintain supercars but crap small cars. Aston and jaguar have class and performance and should be owned by people that love cars. Fiat and alpha are crap the latter with nice paint. Apple should stay away from all auto companies focus on core product.
Broad brush strokes there. You have to evaluate each car design on its individual merits, not on the location of the final assembly plant.
I *do* own a Jaguar (OK, a modest 2007 X-Type). And as one who enjoys sporty cars, I think the idea of an “autonomous” Aston is sacrilege. What’s the point of having a high-end sports car if you’re not the one driving it?
As much as I am a huge Apple fan, I will probably never buy another automobile that isn’t named Tesla. It’s just that good. We had a historic leap from flip phones to iPhone. Tesla is the same leap for automobiles – maybe moreso. Maybe one day someone will get close but it isn’t on the horizon.
You can pry my cold dead fingers from the steering wheel of my Porsche.
After decades of perfecting my driving skills, I’m not interested in relying on automated taxis or buying an overpriced rolling supercomputer.
I am a fan of electric cars, but only for inner cities where the local pollution from congestion makes ICE cars ineffective and undesirable. But the only way electrics make economic sense is if mass volume manufacturing occurs. To achieve that, one of three things has to happen:
1) the militaries guarding oil wells and pipelines would have to be called home , or
2) cities around the world would have to be bold enough to outright ban all combustion cars at least during daylight hours in their downtown cores.
3) Trump would have to put the same tariff on imported oil that he just did for steel. (Or did he? It seems he’s willing to dole out exemptions if anyone is willing to grovel before him. Typical authoritarian bs corruption.)
Until that happens, Tesla and all the other electrified cars will remain niche products, and the mainstream American will buy jacked up wagons marketed as suvs, guzzling fuel in overweight machines neither sporty nor utilitarian.