Some pretty groundbreaking news came by way of Financial Times, who reported that tech giant Apple might acquire McLaren Automotive. This caused quite a stir among the media as the largest consumer electronics company in the world doing anything remotely resembling the purchase of a famous boutique supercar maker is just bonkers.
But in an interesting twist, McLaren completely denied the rumor following a direct inquiry from Jalopnik.
FT first reported the deal could be worth as much as 1.5 billion GBP. But neither Apple or McLaren commented on the deal to the outlet.
McLaren doesn’t just consist of the company that produces the famed P1 and other high-profile supercars like the 650S. There’s also McLaren’s huge Formula One division.
Apple’s interest lies in McLaren’s technology, mainly with consulting for engineering strategies and patents. This sounds entirely plausible considering Apple is serious about making their own cars. However, taking a leap from making top-selling smartphones and personal computers to making a car is no easy feat.
So Apple, as resourceful and gynormous as they are, they still need help. Its car project is tentatively named, Project Titan.
In response to Jalop’s inquiry, McLaren Automotive denied every bit of the rumor.
“We can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment,” the company told Jalopnik in an apparent one-liner email response. “It’s not true at all. There’s no chatter, there’s no acquisition.”
In response to that, Financial Times tweeted that they stand by its original article, despite McLaren’s statement.
Obviously we stand by our story despite McLaren’s statement. https://t.co/MalTHATZdM
— Tim Bradshaw (@tim) September 21, 2016
This should get interesting…
– By: Chris Chin
Source: Financial Times, Jalopnik, Twitter
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