Tesla CEO Elon Musk had a plan to sell his company to Google in 2013 to avoid bankruptcy, but decided against it a few weeks later after Tesla posted its first quarterly profit ever, according to a Bloomberg report.
This information comes from a new book, Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X and the Quest for Fantastic Adventure, set to be released on May 19th and written by Bloomberg journalist Ashlee Vance.
In early 2013, there were technical problems with the Tesla Model S and the company had a tough time turning pre-orders into sales. Musk then contacted Larry Page, his friend and co-founder of Google, and offered him the opportunity to buy Tesla for $6 billion, plus another $5 billion in capital for factory expansions. Two insiders told Vance that Musk also demanded to remain at the helm of Tesla for eight more years.
“I don’t want to speculate on rumours,” Page said when the journalist asked him if Google had considered buying Tesla, adding that a “car company is pretty far from what Google knows.”
Within two weeks of announcing an $11 million quarterly profit, Tesla's shares had doubled, and the company had repaid its $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy early, with interest. No longer in need of a saviour, Musk terminated his negotiations with Google.
The rest is history...