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FILE PHOTO: Volkswagen AG CEO Dr. Herbert Diess speaks at a news conference in New York City, New York, U.S., July 12, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar
BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) CEO Herbert Diess wants to take a stake in Tesla (TSLA.O) to access the U.S. company’s software and batteries technology, German business publication Manager Magazin reported on Thursday.
“Diess would go in right away if he could,” the magazine quoted an unidentified top Volkswagen manager as saying.
Acquiring a stake would be enough for the German carmaker to access Tesla’s technological expertise, the report said.
An obstacle, however, would be to get the consent of Volkswagen’s controlling Piech and Porsche families to fund the stake purchase, the magazine said.
Volkswagen was not immediately available for comment.
A source close to Volkswagen said the management board was not currently in talks to acquire a Tesla stake.
Diess meets with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on a regular basis, Manager Magazin said, adding the U.S. electric carmaker has so far rebuffed efforts at striking an alliance.
A banker close to Volkswagen said that while Diess would love to have Tesla’s software developers, the CEO believed it was almost impossible to justify paying $30 billion (27 billion euros) to buy the whole company.
(1 euro = $1.1076)
Reporting by Thomas Seythal; Additional reporting by Jan Schwartz and Edward Taylor; Editing by Mark Potter
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