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Volkswagen boss wants to take a stake in Tesla to get access to its software, batteries technology: media report

Last updated: 15:15 22 Aug 2019 BST, First published: 15:00 22 Aug 2019 BST

Tesla Inc -
It said that acquiring a stake would be enough for the German carmaker to access Tesla’s technological expertise

The boss of car giant Volkswagen wants to take a stake in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) in order to get access to the electric vehicle maker’s software and batteries technology, according to a German magazine, although the firm later reportedly denied the report.

German business publication Manager Magazin noted VW CEO Herbert Diess meets with Tesla boss Elon Musk on a regular basis, with the magazine adding that the US firm has so far rebuffed efforts at striking an alliance, according to a Reuters story.

However the newswire subsequently said that a spokesman for the German firm told it in a written statement: “The speculation about buying a stake in Tesla made by Manager Magazin is without merit.”

Manager Magazin said that acquiring a stake would be enough for the German carmaker to access Tesla’s technological expertise, however, an obstacle would be to get the consent of VW’s controlling shareholders, the Piech and Porsche families to fund the stake purchase, Reuters noted in a first story.

The newswire added, however, that a source close to the German firm told Manager Magazin that its management board was not currently in talks to acquire a Tesla stake.

Reuters also noted that a banker close to VW said that Deiss believes it is almost impossible to justify paying $30 billion to buy Tesla as a whole.

In morning trading on Nasdaq, Tesla shares remained higher, in spite of the reported VW denial of interest, up 0.7% at $222.43 but that was below earlier gains.

 -- Adds VW denial report; updates share price --

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com

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