Toyota Unloads Tesla Stock, Following In The Footsteps Of Daimler
Toyota recently unloaded a large portion of its stake in Tesla Motors, according to recent reports — selling the shares at a large profit, as the stock was acquired all the way back in May 2010.
The move follows right on the heels of the German automaker Daimler selling its 4% stake in the EV manufacturer — and adding $780 million to its coffers by doing so.
News of the sell-off is coming to us via the Japanese business news reporter Nikkei — which first reported on it last Friday.
To give you an idea of the numbers involved, Toyota acquired a $50 million stake in Tesla a few weeks before the IPO (IPO price of $17 a share), the stock is currently trading at $238 a share. That’s a gain of around 1400% (presuming Toyota still owned the full stake).
Toyota acquired the stake, apparently, at least partly because of the strength of Musk’s personality — as the deal was made shortly after a meeting between Musk and Toyota’s leadership.
That meeting also resulted in the deal between the two that saw Tesla supply batteries and motors to Toyota for its RAV4 electric SUV compliance vehicle. And of course the deal that saw Tesla acquire Toyota’s closed assembly plant in Fremont, California — where Tesla’s manufacturing is now based.
According to Musk there could still be more in the works between the two, having previously hinted that a new deal could be signed between the two sometime during the next 2–3 years or so.
Of course that deal may not come to be — especially considering Toyota’s strange insistence that nobody would want a Toyota-branded BEV, and that hydrogen fuel cells are the way to go.
Image Credit: Toyota
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