Back in September this year rumors began to circulate that Apple was in talks to buy British car manufacturer McLaren.
McLaren were quick to shoot down (opens in new tab) the rumors at the time, but in a recent interview with Reuters (opens in new tab), McLaren’s Chief Executive Mike Flewitt has confirmed that the two companies had met, but “there wasn’t a bid from Apple.”
“They visited. We talked. We talked about what they did. We talked about what we did. They toured. It never matured to a definitive proposition,” Flewitt said.
A match made in heaven
At the time we thought that the deal made sense for both companies. Apple has reportedly been working on its own car (the iCar) for some time now, and has made inroads into the automotive sector with Apple CarPlay.
McLaren meanwhile has some serious car-making chops, having been in both the consumer automotive and motorsport industries for decades.
Although Apple didn’t make an offer, McLaren did confirm that there were bids from other companies. However Flewitt confirmed that McLaren’s shareholders decided against accepting any of the offers made.
It seems as though the combination of meetings being had with Apple, along with bids being made by other companies, may have been the source of the Apple takeover rumors.
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