Before Tesla became one of the biggest players on the auto market, its founder planned to sell the failing business to Google in 2013. The revelation comes from a forthcoming book on Elon Musk by Businessweek writer Ashlee Vance, in which he chronicles Tesla's tumultuous 2012 year and the revelation that—by early March 2013—Musk had reached out to Larry Page about a sale, and eventually reached a deal. But by May of that year, Tesla was posting a profit, and the deal with Page was called off.
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