McLaren tonight poo poo’d the notion that Apple, the computing and lifestyle giant (who’d have thought those two terms would co-exist a decade ago), were keen to buy into the Woking based team.
According to the Financial Times, a potential deal would see Apple pay up to £1.5bn for McLaren, or make an investment for part of it.
Andrew Benson of the BBC reported that a spokesman from McLaren revealed “We can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment.”
However, the firm “regularly” has “confidential conversations with a wide range of parties”.
Clearly #RonSpeak has been handed down to a Woking minion on a scrap of paper.
McLaren statement: "We can confirm that McLaren is not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment."
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) September 21, 2016
McLaren contd: "nature of brand means we regularly have confidential conversations with wide range of parties but we keep them confidential"
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) September 21, 2016
That McLaren statement is what you call a non-denial denial. Could be a denial. Might not be. Could mean anything
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) September 21, 2016
Theo Leggit, writer for BBC business speculates that Apple is unlikely to be interested in the car manufacturing arm of the company, a loss making area. The open secret in Silicon Valley is that Apple has developed a car already and is believed to a driverless vehicle.
Further, a Formula one team will use advanced data analytic models during a race trying to predict many outcomes on the fly, something invaluable to a ‘lifestyle’ brand hoping to make safe a driverless vehicle within an urban environment.
Add to this the advance materials used within F1, again something you’d want to try and factor into an ultra efficient, lightweight advanced vehicle.
Lastly, Apple might just want to have unlimited access to rapid prototyping F1 excels at. Very short turn around times for complex systems. An obvious knock on benefit not just to a car, but also Apples general product lines.
Whatever is going on, as its normal with these things there’s never any smoke without fire. Lets just wait to see what McLaren’s minister of spin, ‘Eric the believable’ comes up with.
Are we still waiting for that title sponsor?
With Bernie now sort of ‘out of the way’, I can see this happening.
They have a title sponser, it also supplies them with engines.
-Eric the believeable logic.
Ah..the Mchondai or as we Ferrari fans will know them…the Iplod 😁,
Joking aside,this is really good news for the team, with the lack of a title sponsor plus this season’s forgettable moments I wish them well all I will add is I had the chance of an apple many,mamy moons ago but went with a zx81, both in kit form, and if I had kept it I could sell for £50,now the apple ..£600+++ damn bad mistake oddball!!
It’s OK… coz what I think is that it won’t happen.
It might have been thinkable a while ago when apple were being more aggressive in their automotive research, but they are more likely now to working as a technology partner and develop embedded software, rather than full iCar production
This is merely corporate smoke and mirrors
“the computing and lifestyle giant (who’d have thought those two terms would co-exist a decade ago)”
This observation says something about the writer of the piece.
Explain