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Tesla has also delivered the Roadster,Model S, and Model X already. Worst case they will probably be scooped up by a competitor, though based on Musk's record t

Tesla has also delivered the Roadster,Model S, and Model X already. Worst case they will probably be scooped up by a competitor, though based on Musk's record that likely won't happen. From the armchair.

rgbrenner 10y ago
Worst case they will probably be scooped up by a competitor, though based on Musk's record that likely won't happen. What record is that? Musk has shown he's willing to sell his companies in the past. Between starting PayPal and selling to Ebay was only 3 years. He owns less than 30% of tesla. So if another company wants to take it over, he may not have a choice.
- boznz 10y ago
  Musk is a tangable asset to Tesla. A Hostile takeover would be a real bad idea IMHO
  - djloche 10y ago
    I think he'd be open to a reverse talent takeover (in the same way that Pixar talent took control of Disney Animation when Disney bought Pixar). I could see Ford merging with Tesla in a few years after Elon isn't running the day to day and is just on the board of Tesla (and running space x) vs ceo of both
    - tcoppi 10y ago
      I've seen a couple of people now suggest Ford as possibly taking over Tesla in a similar manner, and the more I think about it the more it makes sense. As soon as Tesla makes electric cars available in quantity with the Model 3, their best option for continuing to drive down prices and scale out to even lower cost segments is to pair up with an established automaker with the knowledge and history of building <$20k market cars. Tesla management could mostly take over, and Tesla could stay an upmarket badge while trickling down the technology to Ford-badged electric cars. It would really be pretty brilliant I think, and could dramatically shorten the time it takes for mass adoption of electric vehicles.
      - j2bax 10y ago
        Any speculation on what Ford would pay for Tesla?
        ghaff 10y ago
        Market cap is about $32B, so $50B or so is probably a reasonable ballpark estimate.
        boznz 10y ago
        that would by a LOT of rockets :-)
      - djloche 10y ago
        In terms of legacy strictly from an USA auto industry standpoint, I think Elon would find a Telsa led Ford appropriate. In terms of Elon's long term goals, I think a merger and revitalization of Ford would win him huge political points which he can then use for cutting through red tape for SpaceX.
      - Grishnakh 10y ago
        If they do that, they need to retire the old Ford logo finally and come up with something more upscale-looking. The logo is the worst thing about Ford cars; it looks goofy, compared to the badges seen on all the Japanese brands and on Teslas.
    - mtgx 10y ago
      Ford? Is that a serious suggestion? Ford is not even in the same ballpark as Tesla in EVs right now, and Ford's company culture would probably choke the Tesla culture to death. Tesla would have nothing to gain from Ford. You must be thinking that Ford would help with "scaling expertise" and whatnot, but Tesla doesn't need to be acquired to do that. It just needs to hire a few good people to set that up. Also, I think Elon Musk even said in a recent interview that Tesla's cars use like 5% of the components of other cars. Musk prefers to "rethink" everything from scratch, and he has done the same with SpaceX. In that context, Ford would be more of a hindrance, and not in any way helpful. What Tesla needs most is resources, so it can build its new models faster, hire workers faster, pay them more, install 10x more superchargers, start building 2 more gigafactories (which it will probably need by the time they are finished) and so on. It can't do all of that right now because it requires tens of billions of dollars, which it doesn't have. I'd much rather see Apple acquire Tesla in 10 years. Then Tesla would have all the resources it needs to accelerate the growth of its car sales, infrastructure, and the Tesla Energy business. If Elon stays as CEO of Apple after Tim Cook, even better, because he'd probably actually use Apple's cash reserves instead of keeping them in the bank.
    - taneq 10y ago
      From everything he's said, his motivation with Tesla isn't to become the next Ford, but to force the existing auto industry to switch to electric. So while a profitable Tesla will be high on his list of priorities (purely because that profit enables him to work effectively on his other goals) I don't think he'd worry overmuch what the badge is on the front of cheap ubiquitous EVs, as long as they're cheap and ubiquitous.
    - rotten 10y ago
      I could see Mitsubishi scooping them up before Ford would. Mitsubishi is already developing electric vehicles, has a strong global manufacturing base, and could use the extra presence in the US. Ford is more about pickup trucks than anything else.

rgbrenner 10y ago

Worst case they will probably be scooped up by a competitor, though based on Musk's record that likely won't happen. What record is that? Musk has shown he's willing to sell his companies in the past. Between starting PayPal and selling to Ebay was only 3 years. He owns less than 30% of tesla. So if another company wants to take it over, he may not have a choice.

boznz 10y ago
Musk is a tangable asset to Tesla. A Hostile takeover would be a real bad idea IMHO
- djloche 10y ago
  I think he'd be open to a reverse talent takeover (in the same way that Pixar talent took control of Disney Animation when Disney bought Pixar). I could see Ford merging with Tesla in a few years after Elon isn't running the day to day and is just on the board of Tesla (and running space x) vs ceo of both
  - tcoppi 10y ago
    I've seen a couple of people now suggest Ford as possibly taking over Tesla in a similar manner, and the more I think about it the more it makes sense. As soon as Tesla makes electric cars available in quantity with the Model 3, their best option for continuing to drive down prices and scale out to even lower cost segments is to pair up with an established automaker with the knowledge and history of building <$20k market cars. Tesla management could mostly take over, and Tesla could stay an upmarket badge while trickling down the technology to Ford-badged electric cars. It would really be pretty brilliant I think, and could dramatically shorten the time it takes for mass adoption of electric vehicles.
    - j2bax 10y ago
      Any speculation on what Ford would pay for Tesla?
      - ghaff 10y ago
        Market cap is about $32B, so $50B or so is probably a reasonable ballpark estimate.
        boznz 10y ago
        that would by a LOT of rockets :-)
    - djloche 10y ago
      In terms of legacy strictly from an USA auto industry standpoint, I think Elon would find a Telsa led Ford appropriate. In terms of Elon's long term goals, I think a merger and revitalization of Ford would win him huge political points which he can then use for cutting through red tape for SpaceX.
    - Grishnakh 10y ago
      If they do that, they need to retire the old Ford logo finally and come up with something more upscale-looking. The logo is the worst thing about Ford cars; it looks goofy, compared to the badges seen on all the Japanese brands and on Teslas.
  - mtgx 10y ago
    Ford? Is that a serious suggestion? Ford is not even in the same ballpark as Tesla in EVs right now, and Ford's company culture would probably choke the Tesla culture to death. Tesla would have nothing to gain from Ford. You must be thinking that Ford would help with "scaling expertise" and whatnot, but Tesla doesn't need to be acquired to do that. It just needs to hire a few good people to set that up. Also, I think Elon Musk even said in a recent interview that Tesla's cars use like 5% of the components of other cars. Musk prefers to "rethink" everything from scratch, and he has done the same with SpaceX. In that context, Ford would be more of a hindrance, and not in any way helpful. What Tesla needs most is resources, so it can build its new models faster, hire workers faster, pay them more, install 10x more superchargers, start building 2 more gigafactories (which it will probably need by the time they are finished) and so on. It can't do all of that right now because it requires tens of billions of dollars, which it doesn't have. I'd much rather see Apple acquire Tesla in 10 years. Then Tesla would have all the resources it needs to accelerate the growth of its car sales, infrastructure, and the Tesla Energy business. If Elon stays as CEO of Apple after Tim Cook, even better, because he'd probably actually use Apple's cash reserves instead of keeping them in the bank.
  - taneq 10y ago
    From everything he's said, his motivation with Tesla isn't to become the next Ford, but to force the existing auto industry to switch to electric. So while a profitable Tesla will be high on his list of priorities (purely because that profit enables him to work effectively on his other goals) I don't think he'd worry overmuch what the badge is on the front of cheap ubiquitous EVs, as long as they're cheap and ubiquitous.
  - rotten 10y ago
    I could see Mitsubishi scooping them up before Ford would. Mitsubishi is already developing electric vehicles, has a strong global manufacturing base, and could use the extra presence in the US. Ford is more about pickup trucks than anything else.