Jul 30, 2021
Elon Musk Denies He Discussed Apple-Tesla Merger With Tim Cook
Bloomberg News
,(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Friday that he never met with Apple Inc. about a potential takeover and slammed the tech giant’s app store fees, calling them a “global tax on the internet.”
He was responding to an upcoming book that says Apple CEO Tim Cook called Musk in 2016 about taking over Tesla. “Cook & I have never spoken or written to each other ever,” Musk said on Twitter. “There was a point where I requested to meet with Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla. There were no conditions of acquisition proposed whatsoever.”
Cook refused the meeting, Musk said. “Tesla was worth about 6% of today’s value,” he said. The statement reiterated remarks from last year, when Musk said Cook refused to take a meeting about acquiring Tesla.
Musk followed up with a separate tweet on Apple’s store fees. “Epic is right,” he said, a reference to Epic Games Inc.’s lawsuit with Apple over its fees.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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