
Elon Musk Had a Deal to Sell Tesla to Google in 2013 - r0h1n
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-20/elon-musk-had-a-deal-to-sell-tesla-to-google-in-2013
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nakedrobot2
In an alternate universe, Google sold to Yahoo for $1M in 1998; Tesla sold to
Yahoo in 2013.

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higherpurpose
Except it's more likely the Google acquisition wouldn't have gone anywhere
under Yahoo, and Yahoo wouldn't be in the position to buy Tesla today anyway.

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tripzilch
I wonder in what way the web would look different today, if Google had been
acquired and became a mere footnote in Yahoo's long list of sunset
acquisitions...

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mikeash
Thank goodness that didn't happen. Tesla is doing amazing things and is on
track to seriously shake up the automotive industry. I can't imagine that
would be true under Google.

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stevoo
I disagree here. It made me wonder how much more Tesla could have been with
Googles power. As the article states, Elon Musk would keep on working on his
project for 8 years with extra funding to create the same cars he is now.

If that was the case and with Googles money and power, they might had a better
chance of creating a better car as well as adding self driving in the car much
faster if we look at google car. ( offcourse that is still years away )

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seanp2k2
Well, considering Google would have done the Model S release with 500 units
(as part of an "EV explorers" program), then stopped updating the software,
waited 9 months with no news whole competitors built competitive products,
then wrote it off as a loss and announced that they're deprecating the product
in favor of their new line of RC cars, I think it's good that they haven't
sold.

TL;DR name one company Google acquired where they didn't kill that company's
awesome product within a couple years, regardless of how awesome / market-
leading / profitable it was.

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magicalist
Just going off the ones I recognize from this list[1], older than "a couple
years" but since, say, 2009: On2, reCAPTCHA, AdMob, ITA, Widevine, Motorola
(though arguably it had no awesome product to maintain), Waze.

But more than half the companies in that range I don't recognize, so maybe
their product is still around (or is fully functional, but only within Google
Docs or something).

You're also ignoring the fact that many acquisitions wouldn't have survived
without being acquired and their products would have shut down (or "pivoted"
until they were unrecognizable). Tesla obviously wasn't in that category, but
that actually makes it harder to compare to historical data, as few companies
really parallel it well.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisition...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google)

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mikeash
Waze is a great example. They've basically gone full-on vampire on that one,
sucking out all the delicious (user-generated!) data and presumably headed for
leaving Waze itself as a desiccated husk.

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magicalist
A great example of what? It hasn't been quite two years (June 11, 2013), but
it's still around.

Presumably you mean if it's shut down it will be a great example, but right
now it's actually a great example of the opposite: improving the products of
the acquiring company while keeping the acquired product going. You could put
up more walls between the two, but at some point that becomes just investing,
not acquisition.

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mikeash
I think it's a great example right now. I don't see any benefits from the
Google acquisition, and the product is slowly stagnating. The iOS app doesn't
even have native iPhone 6+ support yet! Meanwhile Google is making great use
of Waze data in Google Maps. The current state of things is great if you're a
Maps user, less great if you're a Waze user, and I don't see any indication
that's going to change.

Put the Waze acquisition onto Tesla. Google buys Tesla just as the Model S is
coming out, and starts using the technology to benefit their own products.
Which products it would benefit I'm not sure, but maybe they improve the
batteries for Android phones, or start using the Model S as the testbed for
their self-driving cars, or something. Meanwhile the Model S stays as it was
in 2013, with some minor improvements. This would be a terrible outcome!

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magicalist
Waze does need to update for the iPhone 6 even (not just the plus), but there
are many non-Google apps that need to do the same, and it does still get
updates. Supposedly they're working on a UI refresh[1], but that's what
everyone who hasn't updated yet says.

I'm not arguing that a Tesla acquisition would have been better than the
outcome we got, there's almost no way it would have been, but I would argue
that that would be true for any company doing the acquiring. Acquisitions are
just really tough for the identity of a product by their very nature.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/waze/status/584435142040690688](https://twitter.com/waze/status/584435142040690688)

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mikeash
"I would argue that that would be true for any company doing the acquiring."

Well then, we agree. I'm not saying, "Thank goodness _Google_ didn't acquire
them." I'm saying, "Thank goodness they weren't acquired" and it just happens
to be in the context of a story about Google doing the acquiring.

I can't think of any company that could have acquired Tesla where the outcome
would have been favorable for the things I personally want. There were rumors
going around a while ago about Apple buying them, and my reaction was the same
there.

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lyime
I had a friend who had a brief stint at Tesla, now she is in grad school.

She used to tell me stories of how she was constantly asked to work on
different teams, doing totally unrelated tasks. She started as a project
coordinator but one day she was asked to make sales calls. She also worked on
delivering cars as well as give tours to the Tesla factory.

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mathattack
Sounds like the chaos of a startup. It's why some people choose to work at GM.
It's also why GM floundered - I can't imagine them having any flexibility in
work rules.

I hope they pull it off - I will buy one of their mainstream cars.

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drzaiusapelord
Tesla is a 12 year old company that has burned hundreds of millions of dollars
and shipped tens of thousands of cars. How is it remotely a startup? If you
can't get staffing and other admin stuff right at age 12, then that says a lot
about how poor management is. If you have engineers making sales calls or
giving tours, then you're paying engineering salaries for non-engineering
work.

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tuna-piano
Could someone explain what Google believes its core competency is? Do they
really think that over the long term they can be a software company and a car
company?

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mitchell_h
They're sorta turning into a commercially viable DARPA. They take some really
hard, large scale, problems; get the right people in a room and find
solutions.

Also, cars are basically software at this point. Especially tesla.

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treelovinhippie
> They're sorta turning into a commercially viable DARPA.

This. Google and other companies at its scale don't need to worry too much
about focus. They can just use the excessive amount of revenues made via
software to throw resources at solving global problems and turning scifi into
reality.

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ocdtrekkie
Scifi into reality: Terminator and Minority Report are great visions for our
future. -_-

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TeMPOraL
Said someone who has Star Trek referenced in their nickname... Not every sci-
fi vision is a dystopia.

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personlurking
Isn't Star Trek about everyone basically working for the government (ie, in
the military)?

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TeMPOraL
No; Star Trek focuses on the "military" branch (Starfleet), but the majority
of the population of United Federation of Planets are civilians.

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personlurking
I stand corrected. Picard's home comes to mind.

There has never been an attempt at a television series depicting Star Trek
outisde Starfleet, correct? I mean, something created by the makers of Star
Trek.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I don't know of any. Deep Space Nine came the closest, especially before the
Dominion War arc. While the station itself was commanded by a Starfleet
officer, it was still a sovereign Bajoran territory and most of the
inhabitants were civilians.

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mfringel
Warning: Autoplaying video.

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flinty
flashblock.

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mfringel
Your superior knowledge has been noted by the Ministry of Statistics. Thank
you for supplying the data point.

~~~
kurotetsuka
That made me laugh, thanks XD.

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higherpurpose
I think it's too early for Tesla to sell. Maybe in 10 years. First allow it to
get big enough to get a strong culture that _can 't_ be changed by another
company. What do you think would happen if say GM bought Tesla now? Do you
think Tesla would be able to convert GM to their way of doing things, or the
other way around? (especially if Elon Musk leaves to focus on Space X)

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ohitsdom
Why would they sell in 10 years? A sale then would only make sense if they
were struggling, in which case I wouldn't count on a failing "Tesla culture"
to remain.

It looks like they have a very bright future, with classic automakers playing
catchup. No need or benefit to sell.

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astazangasta
I've started referring to it as Google-Yutani.

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jpmattia
I'm not sure, but it sounds like the lesson is: Anyone can be a decent
salesperson if you have a decent product.

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ocdtrekkie
Very glad we dodged this bullet.

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acheron
Wow, dodged a bullet there.

"Please log into Google+ in order to unlock your car."

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knocknock
I'm getting really tired of seeing this comment in every submission about
Google. This and the annoying "Google support sucks!!" ignorant BS.

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motoboi
Indeed, fast food comedy is not well received here. I think because it ruins
the forum quality in the long run.

I am yet to find another high level forum like this. So, to me, those
community guidelines are working pretty well.

So, although I sometimes laugh a little with those comments, I prefer them to
be downvoted to oblivion so we continue to keep having amazing and informative
comments from others.

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visakanv
Yep, the problem with "fast food comedy" is that once you reward it, everybody
wants to do it– and then it drives out all the more invested, technical
conversations.

We can do the G+ jokes on Reddit. Getting to substance requires a certain
rigor and discipline that can seem a little draconian, but makes all the
difference.

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benihana
> _Yep, the problem with "fast food comedy" is that once you reward it,
> everybody wants to do it_

Anyone who has been on reddit for more than five or six years has seen this.
It used to be on par with hacker news for discussion. I'm not sure if it has
been happening since day one, or if the site reached a critical mass and
started going downhill from there. But I definitely saw it happening before
the Digg migration.

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onezeno
An deal in negotiation is not a deal.

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onezeno
Anyone care to leave a comment as to why they're downvoting?

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gedrap
Didn't downvote myself but one-liners often are not popular in this community.

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dataker
I'm sorry Google people, but I find such company to be disguting.

Inspite of the fact its main business relies on advertisement, Google believes
it is entitled to be a monopoly in technology(any sector).

One could use Thiel's argument of 'monopolies are good' until they are not.
Being a monopoly in tech means being the god of tomorrow. In the end, what in
the future will not be an outcome of current technology?

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dba7dba
Google's like a magazine publisher, TV station, phone directory publisher.

Can you imagine if such publications decide to hire their own doctors/travel-
agent/etc to resell their service and push their products over others? That is
essentially what's happening.

