Apple to buy stake in McLaren, acquire Lit Motors - report

Nieuws Mobiel Wereld 22 SEP 2016
Apple to buy stake in McLaren, acquire Lit Motors - report

Apple is seeking a stake in luxury carmaker McLaren and is in talks to buy Lit Motors, an electric motorbike startup, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The company is expected to make a large investment in McLaren, which would bring brand strength, advanced engineering and a portfolio of patents to Apple's efforts to develop self-driving cars. Lit Motors also has several international self-driving patents, and BMW, Audi and a South Korean automaker are also interested in acquiring Lit, the report said.

McLaren runs a Formula 1 team, for which it mostly develops and designs in-house. Tech unit McLaren Applied Technologies is partnering with Surrey University in a 5G Innovation Centre. In 2010, a sports car division was launched.

The Financial Times earlier reported that Apple was considering buying all of McLaren or taking a stake in the UK-based carmaker, and the New York Times also reported Apple’s talks with Lit Motors. McLaren denied it was negotiating with Apple. Apple and Lit Motors declined to comment.

Apple is working on a self-driving project dubbed Project Titan, according to Bloomberg's sources. The company recently hired the former head of BlackBerry's automotive software division and has continued to raid auto companies for engineers with expertise in designing vehicle manufacturing systems.

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Mobiel

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Apple,  BlackBerry

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Wereld

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Corporate strategy, M&A buyouts & divestments, Research and development

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