Supercar maker McLaren says Apple did meet with them, but didn’t bid for the business

Following a report in September that Apple was considering an acquisition of supercar manufacturer McLaren, the company has told Reuters that discussions and meetings did take place, but did not get as far as a formal bid.

There wasn’t a bid from Apple. 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 company had said previously only that it was not currently ‘in discussion with Apple about any potential investment.’

Apple appears to have significantly retreated from its rumored plans to make an Apple Car, partially shuttering the project in September before apparently switching tack in October, focusing on testing the feasibility of an autonomous driving platform rather than an entire car.