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Elon Musk Denies He Asked to Replace Tim Cook as Apple CEO; Says They ‘never Met’

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Elon Musk Denies He Asked to Replace Tim Cook as Apple CEO; Says They ‘never Met’

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According to a book excerpt released on Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk not only requested Apple CEO Tim Cook to acquire his business in 2016, but he also insisted that if the transaction went through, he become Apple’s new CEO.

Elon Musk denies that this interaction actually occurred. He stated on Twitter that he and Cook have never communicated or written to each other. “There was a point where I requested to meet with Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla. There were no conditions of acquisition proposed whatsoever. He refused to meet,” Musk says.

It’s unclear why Musk, who frequently uses Twitter to opine on unrelated topics, chose to lash out at Apple, but the Los Angeles Times had published a surprising story about an explosive purported conversation between Musk and Cook, as part of the Times’ review of Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins’ soon-to-be-released book on Tesla.

According to Higgins’ book, Musk contacted Cook in 2016. Tesla was suffering financially and dealing with production problems at the time. Musk reportedly urged Cook to have Apple acquire Tesla on one condition: “I’m the CEO,” Musk said, according to Higgins’ book. Cook agreed, assuming Musk meant he would remain in charge of Tesla. When Cook realized Musk was asking to take his job instead, he hit him with the “f— you” response and called it a day.

Meanwhile, Musk has declared that the information in Higgin’s book is incorrect and contrived. “Higgins managed to make his book both false *and* boring,” tweeted the SpaceX CEO. Previously, the Los Angeles Times claimed that as the book was being written, Musk reportedly sought to put a damper on it, telling Higgins that most of it was “nonsense.”

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In response to Musk’s tweet on Friday, Higgins stated that the Tesla CEO was “given plenty of opportunities to comment on this. He didn’t .” According to Higgins, the ill-fated phone call story “comes from Musk’s own account of the conversation, according to people who heard the retelling at the time.”

Cook told the New York Times’ Kara Swisher earlier this year that he’s never talked to Musk, but he has “great admiration and respect for the company he’s built.”

Musk initially stated that he had made an unsuccessful approach to Cook last December, when Reuters reported that Apple planned to begin producing self-driving vehicles by 2024. Musk said he approached Cook about a purchase during the “darkest days of [Tesla’s] Model 3 program,” which resulted in production issues and huge losses for the manufacturer in 2017 and 2018. Musk said that Cook declined to meet with him about a possible sale. Tesla’s sales and market capitalization have increased significantly since then.

Apple is now working on an electric automobile of some kind, which would likely compete directly with Tesla.

This comes after Musk stated that Tesla intends to introduce vehicles in India, but the country’s import tariffs on EVs (Electric Vehicles) are “by far the highest in the world.” Tesla has previously declared its entry into India, and the firm was registered in Bengaluru in January of this year. EV car fans, on the other hand, are still anxiously awaiting the vehicle’s appearance on Indian roads. Madan Gowri, a Twitter user and YouTuber, contacted Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter and asked that the company introduce Tesla vehicles in India.

Musk blasted Apple on Friday, saying the company’s App Store fees “are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right .” Musk was alluding to Epic Games, which is presently embroiled in a legal dispute with Apple over its practice of taking up to 30% of purchases through its App Store.

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