Apple Reportedly In Talks With McLaren And Lit Motors

On September 21, 2016, U.K.-based publishing house, Financial Times (FT), reported that tech-giant Apple approached McLaren for a potential takeover. However, McLaren denied the entire thing. In a statement, a McLaren spokesperson said, “We can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment.” While this comes as a bummer to many, it isn’t that simple to be given up on just like that.

Buying McLaren Technology Group, parent company of McLaren automotive, would serve the California-based tech giant as an excellent base to start developing technology for the future of automotive industry. With its tech-business rival, Google, already in pursuit to master the fully-electric autonomous vehicle technology, Apple wants to get itself into the same line of business by giving life to its highly secretive endeavour, Project Titan. Three people with reliable knowledge of the on-going negotiations said talks for a potential takeover actually began several months ago. If the deal of acquiring McLaren Technology Group does go through, it could cost Apple around US $1.3-2 billion.

While McLaren doesn’t have a long portfolio for road-legal cars in its stable, it sure has a strong Formula 1 racing history in its DNA. McLaren has the required expertise in building cars using lightweight materials such as carbon fibre and aluminium. These are materials which the automotive industry will primarily focus on to build electric and autonomous cars. Why, you may ask? Shedding weight will make the cars more fuel-efficient and hence, make them run for longer on a full-charge.

Another rumour buzzing about came into light from the New York Times publication, which reported that while Apple is in talks with the British carmaker, the tech giant is also in talks with Lit Motors, a San Francisco-based start-up that has developed an electric self-balancing motorcycle, for a possible acquisition. Reportedly, Apple has already hired several former Lit Motors engineers.

Another possible angle of the entire takeover conundrum comes from simple facts. On one hand, McLaren has the reliable technology to build electric cars but hasn’t released any autonomous vehicles till now. Lit Motors, on the other hand, has developed an autonomous motorcycle. Apple can simply takeover both the marques and be on its way to building cars for the future, quicker. After all, we all know that the California-based iPhone maker is more than capable of shelling out enough money for both the acquisitions at the same time.

Apple recently invested China’s main Uber competitor Didi Chuxing. The takeover of McLaren would be its biggest since it bought the Beats headphone brand for US $3 billion in 2014.

Source: Financial Times

Source: New York Times