Apple in Talks with Luxury Carmaker McLaren about Potential Acquisition

Apple has approached British luxury carmaker and Formula One team McLaren about a potential acquisition, likely to be valued at between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion, according to Financial Times.

Apple is considering a full takeover of McLaren, or a strategic investment in the company, according to the report, likely in an effort to bolster its widely rumored Apple Car project.

According to the article, Apple's California technology group, which has been working on a self-driving electric vehicle for more than two years, is considering a full takeover of McLaren or a strategic investment, according to three people briefed on the negotiations who said talks started several months ago.

A tie-up with McLaren, whose expertise ranges from automotive engineering and on-board computer systems to novel chassis materials such as carbon fibre and aluminium, could accelerate Apple’s secretive automotive project.

Apple and McLaren declined to comment.

McLaren, headquartered in Woking, Surrey, U.K. manufactures high-performance sports cars, including the P1 and F1 used for racing.

The carmaker produced just 1,654 vehicles last year, some costing as much as $1 million apiece.

The carmaker has a Formula One team itself that competes under the name McLaren Honda.

Full article available on the Financial Times (subscription)

Read: New York Times, Apple Is Said to Hold Talks with McLaren and Lit Motors

Project Titan
Apple famously has a car department, codenamed “Project Titan,” but the company has never confirmed that it is in fact working on an electric car or self-driving software.

Apple has recently focused its attention on self-driving car software, instead of the manufacturing processes that would go into making its own car, according to a slew of recent reports.

But Apple's core corporate strengths are design, supply chain management, and manufacturing processes, all of which lend strength to the argument that if Apple were to do a car, it would design both the hardware and software, as it does for the iPhone.

An investment or purchase in McLaren would give Apple an injection of racing technology, as well as a team of automotive-focused engineers. McLaren also owns several valuable patents, especially for high-tech materials such as carbon fiber and aluminum. It does manufacturing research and studies materials in its McLaren Applied Technologies group.

McLaren Technologies Group also does substantial work with sensors and data in a department called McLaren Electronic Systems. For example, the company compares real-time data collected during races with historical data, which means that it has solved several problems dealing with the flood of data a connected car generates.

One of the challenges Apple's car project faces is dealing and analyzing the flood of data generated by its sensor-laden vehicles currently driving around California. Those vehicles can produce 2GB of data per mile.

Apple has invested in a company in the transportation world before. The company invested $1 billion earlier this year in Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-hailing company. “From a Didi point of view, we see that as, one, a great financial investment. Two, we think that there are some strategic things that the companies can do together over time,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said.

Source: Business Insider