There's never a shortage of buyout rumors, and this week offered a juicy one when The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Apple (AAPL 0.96%) and Tesla Motors (TSLA 2.07%) held talks last year.
Companies meet all the time, but the source claimed that the meeting was with Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions, so this wasn't just chatter about getting iOS technology in electric cars or getting Apple to lend its expertise on a more efficient Tesla battery.
To be fair, the pairing would seem ridiculous. Apple sells premium products, but Tesla's market, where it's selling just thousands of cars a month and looking to put out 35,000 this year, may be too limited. There's also Tesla's valuation, and the stock was trading for far less when the talks reportedly happened last year.
It would be an interesting pairing, of course. Apple could really expand Tesla's market, getting a new growth vehicle -- no pun intended -- along the way. However, Tesla isn't likely to cash out as long as it remains a market darling. Apple has a ton of dough on its balance sheet, even if you back out the money that's stashed away overseas to avoid a repatriation tax bill. It would be in Apple's best interest to explore needle-moving purchases to help breathe new life into its slowing organic growth. However, Tesla isn't it. Tesla was never going to be it.
Briefly in the news
And now let's look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR +0.00%) and Lavazza have been partners since the Italian icon invested in the Keurig company a couple of years with plans to team up and put out an espresso maker, but this week Lavazza struck a deal to get its famous brews into K-Cups.
- Shares of priceline.com (PCLN 0.99%) hit another all-time high on Friday after the company posted blowout quarterly results. The travel portal's strong showing shouldn't come as much of a surprise: Priceline has routinely beaten Wall Street profit targets over the past few years.
- Twitter (TWTR +0.00%) investors have been concerned lately that the social platform's user base may be peaking, but a new comScore report shows that engagement is accelerating, prompting Goldman Sachs to issue an upbeat report on the stock that reiterates its bullish rating. Is it bad form to close with a hashtag? #comeback
