Chitchat Is Apple is interested in buying McLaren?

Will be very interesting if this is true

http://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/195088/

Apple reportedly in discussions to buy sports car manufacturer McLaren

Reports are circulating that Apple is in the midst of conversations to buy some aspects of the McLaren Technology Group, specifically, the division that is known for hand-crafted luxury high-performance sports cars to supplement the Apple Car project.

According to testimonials from "three people briefed on the negotiations" the Financial Times is claiming that Apple started negotiations to purchase McLaren for between ?1 billion and ?1.5 billion ($1.3 billion to $2 billion). Discussions have reportedly been ongoing for months.

McLaren is known for custom luxury sports car builds, and runs an advanced technologies group that feeds designs to its own Formula One racing team. The company built 1654 vehicles in 2015, and generated ?450m ($585 million) in revenue from the sales.

At this time it is not clear if Apple is seeking to buy just the automotive division from the group, or the entire group.

McLaren Automotive is headquartered in the McLaren Production Centre at the McLaren Technology Campus in Woking, Surrey. All of its products are built by hand, with little or no automation involved in the process.

The existence of Apple's automotive project dubbed "Project Titan" was first sussed out early last year. Soon after, AppleInsider discovered the automotive project was being run out of a top-secret facility in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The Titan team was at one time said to number above 1,000, including workers pulled in from other departments and specialists poached from automotive industry heavyweights.

In early September, Apple was said to have laid off dozens of workers from the as-yet unannounced Apple Car project. The layoffs were said to be because of a shift away from a whole-car approach, and towards a more specific software and control focus.

they gave up on the last inhouse apple car design team. many got fired lately. they will go electric like tesla has done but self-driving is still up in the air. and they have signed an agreement with samsung to develop cylindrical lithium ion batteries meant for vehicles. good luck to that, and hopefully it doesn't burn while charging.

Peter Lim Huat again with his Midas touch?

Or maybe Apple has decided to acquire the talent by buying McLaren? That is what they did to acquire the in house engineers who designed the A8 processor.

Apple is also rumoured to be interested in acquiring LIT.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-mclaren-lit-motors-show-roads-to-car-product

Apple’s Talks With McLaren, Lit Motors Show Roads to Car Product

As it firms up plans to upend the auto industry, Apple Inc. is looking toward British carmaker McLaren and San Francisco-based startup Lit Motors for help.

Both would give Apple some of the know-how needed to compete head to head against or forge a meaningful partnership with automakers. Yet the two companies exist on opposite ends of the spectrum: McLaren designs million-dollar race cars that mostly run on gas for its affluent customer base, while Lit Motors is developing an electric vehicle that looks like a mashup of a Smart Car and a motorcycle.

McLaren is known for its expensive cars, design aesthetic and focus on customer service. None of those features would immediately benefit Apple’s work on a car. The Cupertino, California-based company already has hundreds of car engineers in a special projects group called Project Titan and its Jony Ive-led industrial design team has a former Lamborghini designer on staff. What McLaren would bring to a partnership is a top brand name, high-end buyers and a research-and-development strategy.

“McLaren has experience dealing with high-end customers, customers who discriminate between good and really good,” said Anil Doradla, an analyst at William Blair & Co. “In that context, I believe they will be very supportive of an Apple experience in the car.”

Apple is exploring a strategic investment in the British carmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Even so, the company denied any current discussions.

Apple also is in active talks to acquire Lit Motors, another person familiar with the matter said. Through its work on a small vehicle known as the C-1, the startup would provide the expertise to develop the components for an electric car or a platform for other automakers.

The company, which has 10 technology patents involving a self-driving platform and has applied for 82 patents internationally, is positioning its portfolio as central to an acquisition, according to a person briefed on the startup’s business. It currently employs 13 engineers with car platform experience, the person said.

After returning to Apple full-time earlier this year to oversee the car project, highly regarded engineering manager Bob Mansfield shifted the iPhone maker’s focus from building a complete car to developing an underlying platform. The car team now includes three main groups: one focusing on software, another on self-driving sensors, and a third on mechanical hardware. This newly installed approach gives Apple the option to market whatever platform technology it creates to existing carmakers or sell its own automobiles by its 2020 target date.

“If Apple were just looking to produce a full-baked product or service, McLaren would not be an obvious choice,” said Eric Noble, president of CarLab, an automotive-consulting firm. “It’s not an area where they have a competitive advantage.”

he McLaren brand would be a safe pick for an Apple investment, however, and the carmaker’s attachment to Formula 1 Racing could also serve as a future point of marketing and exposure. The closely held U.K. company is more than 55 percent owned by Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co., the investment arm of the kingdom of Bahrain. The next two biggest shareholders are TAG Group Ltd., a Luxembourg-based holding company, with 11 percent, and McLaren Chairman Ron Dennis, with 10 percent. It’s valued at 750 million to 1 billion pounds, ($978 million to $1.3 billion), according to Richard Hilgert, a Chicago-based analyst with Morningstar.

Just as Apple seeks to place iPhones in the hands of the world’s top photographers and Apple Watches on personalities from Beyonce to Karl Lagerfeld, it would make sense for Apple to want its future car platform on some of the most prestigious tracks in the world. Beyond strategy, some of Apple’s top executives have race car ties. Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller calls the McLaren F1 one of his favorite cars, while services chief Eddy Cue sits on Ferrari NV’s board of directors.

Here's a look at some of Lit products:

[video=youtube;43l09z4yy_g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43l09z4yy_g[/video]

johnny333 said:

Here's a look at some of Lit products:

[video=youtube;43l09z4yy_g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43l09z4yy_g[/video]

Click to expand...

cool........

i'm waiting call from gay cook when he gg to bring cash to the table. i dont take cheques

kkbutterfly said:

cool........

Click to expand...

If the COE for this thing falls under the motor cycle category I can see many Sporeans getting one. It provides more protection from careless motorists & motor cycles are cheaper to own.