Tesla CEO Elon Musk: Sure, We Met with Apple

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed he met with Apple, but isn't saying what was discussed. He did, however, say that the idea Apple would buy his company is "very unlikely," confirming what The Mac Observer suspected.

Tesla met with Apple most likely to talk about battery design collaborationTesla met with Apple most likely to talk about battery design collaboration

New surfaced several days ago claiming Mr. Musk met with Adrian Perica, Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions, about a year ago. Speculation immediately targeted the idea that Apple was looking at buying the electric car maker, but what seemed more likely was that the companies were talking about collaborating on more efficient battery designs.

Mr. Musk shared his comments in a Bloomberg TV interview where he also said, "If one or more companies had approached us last year about such things, there's no way we could really comment on that."

Apple has partnered with other companies to help improve its products before, and the innovative culture at Tesla would be a good fit for a collaboration on better portable power sources. The companies could've been discussing Apple's iOS in the car program, too.

What we know for sure now is that Apple and Tesla have had talks -- it's the nature of those discussions that's still secret. Regardless of what was discussed, it's a safe bet that a buyout wasn't on the table.