M and A – Page 9346 – I wish I had more to offer

Apple bid to buy Tesla in 2013 for $240 a share, analyst says

GP: Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an event at the site of the company's manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019.Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWith Tesla's stock sinking to around $200 this week, Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners, told CNBC on Tuesday that the electric car company could have sold to Apple six years ago for a significantly higher price per share.
“Around 2013, there was a serious bid from Apple at around $240 a share,” Irwin said in an interview on “Squawk Box. ” “This is something we did multiple checks on. I have complete confidence that this is accurate. Apple bid for Tesla. I don't know if it got to a formal paperwork stage, but I know from multiple different sources that this was very credible.”
Apple and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Tesla is down more than 38% in 2019, to a share price of $197.76 at the start of trading Tuesday. The stock has plunged 46% from its high in August, when CEO Elon Musk said he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share.
Knowing there was a “very credible” bid on the table in 2013 keeps Irwin from being more bearish on the stock today.
“If Apple had interest then, they would probably have interest now at the right price,” he said.
VIDEO6:3806:38Watch a Tesla analyst weigh in on Morgan Stanley's revised bear caseSquawk BoxIrwin said that Apple's car project continues to develop in secret, and that the company is building large “dry rooms” in California to do something related to automotive batteries. According to Irwin, those rooms are designed to handle the environmental containment required for the production of lithium-ion batteries.
“My checks are Apple is building several dry rooms, including a couple that are much larger than what you would need for watch or consumer product battery development,” Irwin wrote in a follow-up email.
Irwin is not the first to suggest that Apple and Tesla have held discussions. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2014 that Musk met with Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions and most likely CEO Tim Cook as well.
If the two companies were to combine, it would be by far Apple's largest acquisition ever and one of the biggest in the history of the technology industry. Tesla's current market cap is about $36 billion. The most Apple has ever paid is $3 billion for Beats Electronics in 2014.
For a deal to take place Apple would face the question of what to do with the outspoken Musk and his tendency to gain attention for many of the wrong reasons, whether it's tweeting out material nonpublic information or smoking weed on a podcast.
“Regarding the acquisition: my understanding is Apple wanted Elon Musk to step away, and that was a deal killer,” Irwin said in the email.
Correction: In August, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 a share. An earlier version mischaracterized his statement.
WATCH: Elon Musk seen smoking weed on podcast
VIDEO0:5700:57Elon Musk seen smoking weed on podcastSquawk BoxSubscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

The ultimate list

*/ ]]> We say thank you! Whether from Kaiserslautern, Eisenach, Bochum, Rüsselsheim or Rest Germany: In recent weeks, we have many original, creative and sometimes bizarre proposals for the list “120 things that an Opel fan must have done” achieved. “The result is a great list that makes any Opel fan reminisce and reflects the… Continue reading The ultimate list

GM’s car-sharing service Maven to exit eight cities

GM is scaling back its Maven car-sharing company and will stop service in nearly half of the 17 North American cities in which it operates. A spokesperson who confirmed Maven was shutting down in some cities, without identifying the locations or number that will remain, said the company plans to focus on markets that have… Continue reading GM’s car-sharing service Maven to exit eight cities

Panasonic Joins Forces With Tropos Motors On eCUV

Small, low-speed electric compact utility vehicles (eCUV) can be very useful and profitable compared to full-size trucks Panasonic announced a partnership with Tropos Motors, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of low-speed electric compact utility vehicles (eCUV). According to the press release, Panasonic wants to play a part in addressing the “right-sizing” trend on the market as… Continue reading Panasonic Joins Forces With Tropos Motors On eCUV

Milestone: 10 million flying hours in nearly 5 million flights for the ultra-reliable long distance business aircraft engine – the Rolls-Royce Tay 611-8

LONDON, 17-Apr-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — Rolls-Royce has just announced its Tay 611-8 engine has recently reached to 10 million flying hours milestone in after having had nearly 5 million flights. The engine was originally launched in 1987 and is powering range of Gulfstream’s large-cabin business aircraft as the Gulfstream GIV, GIV-SP, G300 and G400. Outstanding dependability, efficiency and low noise generation have earned a great reputation for the Rolls-Royce’s Tay 611-8 engine.

Tay 611-8’s incredible performance helped Gulfstream GIV to revolutionise the business aviation market with its high cruising speed and the 4,300 nautical miles intercontinental range.

The Tay 611-8 engine has broken many records for speed and range over the past 30 years. Stepping on these achievements the Tay 611-8C engine, Tay 611-8 successor, is today powering the Gulfstream G350 and G450.

As of today, there are more than 1,700 Tay 611-8 and Tay 611-8C engines in service. Rolls-Royce’s market leading CorporateCare® supports many of them.

The deal for the first ever Tay order contract, made by then the company’s Managing Director Sir Ralph Robins and Gulfstream’s founder Allen Paulson is part of the aviation history. Officially signed in March 1983, the story goes that in December 1982 the basic details such as engine price, quantity, payment terms, etc., have been written on a napkin in less than 10 minutes by Sir Ralph Robins.

Commenting on the 10 million flying hours milestone, Dirk Geisinger, Director Business Aviation, Rolls-Royce, said:

“Reaching 10 million flying hours is an impressive milestone and we are very proud of this achievement. With its legendary reliability the Tay 611-8 became the benchmark for ultra-reliable long distance business aircraft and perfectly illustrates why Rolls-Royce is the leading engine manufacturer in Business Aviation. The Tay family with its proven performance has been very successful for us and has propelled our market leadership in this sector. Combining this engine with our latest aftermarket programme CorporateCare Enhanced raises the bar for the whole industry by introducing uncapped troubleshooting, coverage for mobile repair team travel costs and nacelle coverage on later engine models.”

Geisinger added further:

“CorporateCare Enhanced provides our customers with a global support infrastructure which includes Engine Health Monitoring, a worldwide network of Authorised Service Centres and globally distributed spare parts and engines, all managed by our dedicated 24/7 Business Aircraft Availability Centre. Our customers benefit directly from this investment in proactive care, an in most cases are prevented from missing a planned trip.”

SOURCE: Rolls-Royce

MORE ON ROLLS-ROYCE, GULFSTREAM, BUSINESS AIRCRAFT, TAY 611-8 ENGINE, ETC.:
TomTom to provide Live Traffic information, Online Routing and Electric Vehicle Services for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehiclesSafran CEO Philippe Petitcolin: We have delivered and even exceeded all our March 2016 ambitionsAircraft lessor SMBC Aviation Capital orders 15 A321neo and 50 A320neo aircraftFour major private jet manufacturers select Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX as linefit optionRolls-Royce announces blisk production milestone in its Oberursel factorySingapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC to become a significant minority investor in Nordic Aviation CapitalRolls-Royce announces joint deliberations and preparatory measures for the retrofit of Coradia Lint diesel rail vehicles with MTU hybrid drivesVINCI Airports to acquire a 50.01% shareholding in London Gatwick Airport for GBP2.9 billionHeathrow: UK's first electric-hybrid aircraft to touch down at the UK’s hub free of charge for a yearSABCA to attend the Farnborough Air Show, 11-15 July, 2016easyJet extends ground handling operations partnership with DHL to include two more UK airportsRolls-Royce and Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines carried successful navigational safety test aboard a 165m passenger ferryPrime Aviation & Fokker Services sign ABACUS contract for the Dash 8-200 turbopropRolls-Royce to retrofit the entire Alpha Trains railcar fleet to MTU hybrid drive systemsRolls-Royce Cullinan and Dawn open ski season in Courchevel 1850Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye: 2018 was the best ever year at HeathrowSABCA presents at the AERO INDIA 2015 Air Show 18th-22nd February, Belgian AerospaceAirbus SE delivered 800 commercial aircraft to 93 customers in 2018, 11 percent more than in 2017Rolls-Royce and Irish Rail to jointly pioneer the use of MTU hybrid rail drives on the Irish railway networkSABCA awarded a new contract to perform “300 Hours Phase Inspections” on Royal Netherlands Air Force's F-16 fleetU.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium Howard Gutman visited SABCA’s facilities in Gosselies, BelgiumSABCA to attend the Paris Air Show, Le Bourget, June 17- 23, 2013Rolls-Royce announces first UK agreement to deliver MTU hybrid drive systemRolls-Royce launches new V-Engine seriesRolls-Royce marks an important milestone with the delivery of its 7,000th engine made from Dahlewitz site to Gulfstream Aerospace CorporationInmarsat's market-leading Jet ConneX business aviation inflight wifi service now installed and activated on 275 business jets worldwideRolls-Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines to power Air Premia's 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft

One of the largest European telematics providers joins Michelin Group

Clermont-Ferrand, France, 17-May-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — Michelin signed an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of Masternaut, one of the largest European telematics providers. The acquisition is in line with the Group’s development strategy in the Services & Solutions business and leveraging the experience it has gained following the Sascar and NexTraq acquisitions in America.

Masternaut provides a technical platform equipped with the latest technology. The company offers on-board telematics solutions to optimize vehicle fleet management and monitoring. Masternaut manages over 220,000 mostly light utility vehicles under contract. It operates mainly in France and the United Kingdom. The transaction has been made on the basis of 8 times 2018 Ebitda before synergies.

The acquisition will speed up the development of Michelin‘s Services & Solutions business for light vehicles and support the booming fleet market. The deal will also enable Masternaut to roll out its offering across the whole of Europe by taking advantage of the Michelin network’s geographical coverage. The acquisition will also increase the volume of data captured, allowing Michelin to offer its customers the best solutions, improve product performance and develop its data science deployments, such as predictive maintenance.

Florent Menegaux, Managing General Partner, comments: “Michelin is consolidating its expertise in telematics, enabling us to optimize customer mobility and respond to the needs of a changing market. Masternaut represents a further step in the expansion of our Services & Solutions business, especially in Europe and for light vehicle fleets.”

SOURCE: MICHELIN

MORE ON MICHELIN, ETC.:
Pascal Couasnon to succeed Alexandre Taisne as Director of the Mobility Experience Business Line at MichelinMichelin’s next MotoGP journey will be to head south over the Equator and travel to Termas de Rio Hondo in ArgentinaMichelin: our latest endurance racing tyres evolved significantly for the FIA WEC’s 2018/2019 ‘Super Saison’Michelin to unveil its latest enduro tyres at 2017 FIM International Six Days of Enduro (ISDE)PTG and Téléflow acquisitions signal Michelin’s intention to become the global leader for CTIS in the agricultural marketBMW Team RLL finishes fourth and ninth in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway (USA)Gwendal Poullennec named International Director, MICHELIN Guides

Quadric.io raises $15M to build a plug-and-play supercomputer for autonomous systems

Quadric.io, a startup founded by some of the folks behind the once-secretive bitcoin mining operation “21E6,” has raised $15 million in a Series A round that will fund the development of a supercomputer designed for autonomous systems. The round was led by automotive Tier 1 supplier DENSO and its semiconductor products arm NSITEXE, which will also… Continue reading Quadric.io raises $15M to build a plug-and-play supercomputer for autonomous systems

In-car commerce startup Cargo extends Uber partnership to Brazil

Cargo, the startup that brings the convenience store into ride-hailing vehicles, is making its first international expansion through an exclusive partnership with Uber in Brazil. Uber drivers in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will now be able to sign up for Cargo and potentially earn additional income by selling products to passengers during their… Continue reading In-car commerce startup Cargo extends Uber partnership to Brazil

Honda, GM blockchain project to examine how EV owners could earn revenue from smart grids

Honda and GM have joined forces in a new research project that aims to examine how electric cars and smart grids can work together in the future, with EV owners possibly leveraging their car batteries into new streams of revenue. The project hopes to determine if electric vehicles can be used to stabilize the power… Continue reading Honda, GM blockchain project to examine how EV owners could earn revenue from smart grids

Over 250 Ford employees in Naberezhnye Chelny let go – administration

KAZAN, May 20. / TASS /. More than 250 employees at the Ford Sollers enterprise in Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan were dismissed by the agreement of the parties, said the director of the Naberezhnye Chelny Employment Center Tatiana Bydanova at the mayor's office meeting on Monday.
“So far, the first stage of the Ford Sollers has taken place, 266 people were dismissed by agreement of the parties. Employees did not apply to the employment center, only three women asked for advice, the rest were employed independently,” she said. As the Mayor of Naberezhnye Chelny, Nail Magdeev, noted, that the city administration had predicted that a large number of enterprises that opened within the framework of the priority development area “would be snap up Ford Sollers employees like hotcakes”.
In April, the mayor ordered to find jobs for 802 Ford Sollers employees in Naberezhnye Chelny, which represents 94% of the total number of dismissed employees. In total, 851 people and 14 employees of the ..