Google nearly bought Tesla Motors in 2013
New revelations have emerged about how Google was on the verge of acquiring electric car company Tesla in 2013.
The news was broken by Bloomberg, which hosts an excerpt from a new book on Tesla.
Apparently in 2013, the company was nearing bankruptcy and not selling any cars – so it had to take a loan from the US government. This led CEO Elon Musk to have a chat with his mate Larry Page, CEO of Google about an acquisition.
The plan got as far as actually shaking on the deal – which would have seen Google pay a cool $6bn for the company, as well as promise that it wouldn’t dismantle Tesla until it has had a chance to create a third generation car. Musk would have stayed with the company for eight years.
As it turned out, Musk in the end didn’t need the cash. Apparently whilst the lawyers on both sides were doing the necessary legal stuff sales picked up and Tesla started selling a tonne of cars – so Musk broke off the deal.
Unfortunately, the Bloomberg piece doesn’t detail whether Google would have transferred the cash to Musk using Paypal.
