Apple visited carmaker McLaren but never offered to buy it

AP

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple visited British supercar engineer and Formula One team owner McLaren Technology Group (MTG), but never offered to buy it, Reuters has reported.

"They visited. We talked. We talked about what they did. We talked about what we did. They toured. It never matured to a definitive proposition," the CEO of McLaren Automotive, an MTG subsidiary, told Reuters.

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Rumours that Apple was in talks to buy MTG were initially reported by the Financial Times and McLaren officially denied them at the time, but this is the first confirmation that the two companies spoke.

MTG's shareholders have turned down a number of perspective buyers, Reuters reported, but Apple was not one of them.

The news that MTG has rejected takeover bids comes a week after the company announced its CEO and founder Ron Dennis will step down. His successor is yet to be named.