Musk: Apple CEO didn’t take meeting about buying Tesla

NEWYORK, Dec 23 (AP): Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he once considered selling the electric car maker to Apple, but the iPhone maker’s CEO blew off the meeting.

In a tweet Tuesday, Musk said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook “to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for one-tenth of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.”

Tesla’s market value is $616 billion, as of the close of trading Tuesday. One-tenth of that is $61.6 billion.

Musk said he sought out the meeting with Cook “during the darkest days of the Model 3 program,” a reference to Tesla’s first electric car designed for the mass market. As recently as 2018, Tesla was struggling to meet its vehicle production goals and turn a profit.

Tesla’s fortunes have changed since then. The automaker is finally making money on a consistent basis after years of losses and continues to hit milestones for deliveries of its vehicles. Its shares have soared 665% this year alone, making it the world’s most valuable automaker and among the top 10 biggest U.S. companies in the S&P 500 index, which Tesla entered on Monday.

Musk’s tweet followed published reports suggesting Apple is working on developing its own electric cars.

Apple declined to comment.