{"id":92882,"date":"2015-04-21T13:19:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T17:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=92882"},"modified":"2015-04-21T13:20:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T17:20:49","slug":"elon-musk-nearly-sold-tesla-motors-to-google-claims-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/04\/elon-musk-nearly-sold-tesla-motors-to-google-claims-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk Nearly Sold Tesla Motors to Google, Claims New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk would have stayed on even if had to sell the company to Google.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

History is filled with events determined by a last-minute choice. A new book outlines one such moment that nearly changed the course taken by California battery-car start-up Tesla Motors as founder Elon Musk hatched a plan to sell the company to tech giant Google.<\/p>\n

Back in March 2013, writes Ashlee Vance, a reporter with the Bloomberg news service, Tesla was, \u201con the verge of bankruptcy,\u201d bleeding cash and watching potential customers walk away. Desperate to keep his vision alive, South African-born Musk approached his friend and Google CEO Larry Page.<\/p>\n

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Your Auto News Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMusk drove a hard bargain,\u201d Vance writes in her new book, \u201cElon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.\u201d He proposed that Google buy Tesla outright\u00a0\u2014\u00a0with a healthy premium, the company would have cost about $6 billion at the time\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and pony up another $5 billion in capital for factory expansions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed deal didn\u2019t stop there. Musk \u2013 who also founded rocket company Space X \u2013 demanded Google promise it would not only complete the launch of the luxurious Model S battery-car and the Model X SUV scheduled to follow, but continue the project at least until a third, more mainstream product, now known as the Model III, came to market.<\/p>\n

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The Tesla Model S has won over many buyers with its performance, as well as its eco-friendly nature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Check out this review of the Tesla Model S 70d. <\/em>Click Here<\/a>.)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And if that didn\u2019t add enough strings to the deal, Musk insisted that he be allowed to remain at the helm of a Google-owned Tesla for eight more years. Apparently, that was fine with Page who later told the book\u2019s author that, a \u201ccar company is pretty far from what Google knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs weren\u2019t so far as to shake on the deal and then hand it over to the lawyers to get the paperwork in order. They didn\u2019t work fast enough.<\/p>\n

On May 8th<\/sup>, Tesla delivered a blockbuster earnings report marking its first time in the black \u2013 albeit using its own accounting procedures, rather than the bookkeeping methods typically used by American businesses. It didn\u2019t matter. The numbers shocked analysts and investors, setting in motion one of the fastest run-ups in a publicly traded company\u2019s stock in years.<\/p>\n

On Monday, May 6, 2013, shares of TSLA were trading for $59.50. By Friday, that jumped to a $76.76 close. (Over the last year, Tesla has traded as high as $281.42 \u2013 though in recent weeks it has dropped down closer to the $200 mark.)<\/p>\n

The 2013 earnings report wasn\u2019t the only thing that helped Tesla turn things around. Despite some early glitches \u2013 including problems with the hideaway door handles on early versions — the Model S quickly earned rave reviews. It was named Car of the Year by Motor Trend, and Consumer Reports declared it the best car the non-profit magazine had ever tested.<\/p>\n

The worst seemingly over, Musk called his friend at Google and pulled the plug on the deal.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a>\u00a0for news about Tesla\u2019s latest quarterly delivery record.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The book\u2019s account of the proposed Tesla sale is largely based on several unnamed sources, noting that Tesla declined to \u201cspeculate on rumors.\u201d Spokesperson Alexis Georgeson told TheDetroitBureau.com, the book “can speak for itself. We have nothing to add.”<\/p>\n

Tesla is still a subject of controversy, Wall Street analysts offering widely different opinions on its long-term potential. But few would argue it has had a significant impact on the auto industry, a wide range of competitors rethinking their approach to battery technology going forward.<\/p>\n

As for Google, the company hasn\u2019t entirely walked away from the auto industry. It is considered a leader in the emerging world of autonomous driving technology, and is now rolling out a fleet of self-driving prototypes around its Silicon Valley headquarters. But the tech firm has said it doesn\u2019t plan to actually build cars of its own and would like to find a partner to work with.<\/p>\n

Tesla, meanwhile, is working on its own autonomous driving system which Musk says he hopes to bring to market in the near future.<\/p>\n

The book, \u201cElon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,\u201d will be released on May 19 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.<\/p>\n

(To see more about the revival of the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid, <\/em>Click Here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History is filled with events determined by a last-minute choice. One such moment nearly changed everything for California battery-car start-up Tesla Motors as founder Elon Musk hatched a plan to sell the company to tech giant Google. The story from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92882"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=92882"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=92882"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=92882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}