According to a November Quartz article, Tesla is now worth more than GM, Ford, Toyota and almost every other car company combined. Hard to believe, right? Especially when you consider that back in 2013, Tesla was so broke that Elon Musk came close to selling it to Google.
The deal? A tidy $6 billion up-front plus $5 billion for factory expansions. But in true Musk fashion, he pulled the plug at the last second – not out of arrogance but because Tesla's fortunes reversed practically overnight.
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According to Ashlee Vance's biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Tesla's situation in early 2013 was dire. The company had just two weeks of cash left, preorders weren't turning into sales and word-of-mouth for the Model S wasn't great. Customers complained about design flaws like stubborn door handles and ugly seams in sun visors. To make matters worse, some Tesla executives had kept the full scope of the crisis from Musk.
When Musk found out, he fired key senior staff, promoted junior employees he believed had more drive and even called in Jerome Guillen, a Daimler executive, to revamp Tesla's repair centers. Musk then issued a companywide mandate: "If we don't deliver these cars, we are f***ed. So I don't care what job you were doing. Your new job is delivering cars."
Even with these drastic measures, Tesla's future looked bleak. Musk shut down the factory temporarily and approached Larry Page, Google's cofounder, with a lifeline deal.
Musk and Page, already friends, hashed out terms that would keep Tesla alive. According to Vance, the agreement included several key points:
- Google would buy Tesla for $6 billion.
- It would allocate $5 billion for factory expansions.
- Tesla would remain an independent brand and Musk would stay on as CEO for up to eight years or until Tesla launched its third-generation vehicle.
The deal seemed nearly finalized, with lawyers drafting the paperwork, but then Tesla's fortunes made a dramatic U-turn.
In Q1 2013, Tesla experienced a sudden surge in Model S sales. This stabilized the company's cash flow and allowed Tesla to post its first quarterly profit of $11 million. The news sent Tesla's stock price soaring, which enabled the company to repay its $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy earlier than expected.
With Tesla's newfound financial health, Musk called off the deal with Google. "He no longer needed a savior," Vance wrote in the book.
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Had the deal gone through, Tesla's trajectory – and perhaps Google's – might have looked entirely different. While Google pursued car-related ambitions, including autonomous driving technologies, it's hard to imagine it achieving Tesla's cultural and market dominance.
Fast forward to 2024 and Tesla's value has skyrocketed. Its market cap now exceeds $1.35 trillion, with stock prices up over 870% in the past five years. The company is a global leader in electric vehicles and renewable energy. Musk's decision to keep Tesla independent during its darkest days is seen as one of the most pivotal moments in its history.
In hindsight, Google may have missed out on one of the century's most transformative companies, but for Musk, the decision to stay the course solidified Tesla as more than just a car company. It became a movement – one that nearly didn't happen.
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