Apple could do it, sure. I personally think they're the most likely candidate of any potential acquirer.

But fundamentally, an acquisition of this nature is a simple build vs buy decision. In a situation where Tesla is ready to undergo a fire sale, its R&D will have already been cut to the bone.

If Tesla stagnates technically, "build" becomes infinitely more attractive; you're no longer desperately chasing a moving target, you're simply replicating what is known to work. Companies that can do this (as opposed to original R&D) are a dime a dozen.

If the company is still healthy, I just don't see who would have the means and motive to acquire it.

Doable by companies like Apple/Google, the issue is why would they do it? Their shareholders would not approve such transaction as it's just throwing your money into a furnace.

Doable by a lot of companies if they wanted to, I think the suggestion was that someone in the domain would make the acquisition, which seems much tougher a prospect.

Larry Ellison invested in TSLA. I would not want to see Oracle buy them.

Model 3 suddenly cost $1,000 per wheel and come with a mandatory $40k/year support package, but don't worry, your rep got you a sweet 7.5% discount on future services — and he's never heard of a director approving such an incredible discount.

Hmm maybe TSLA should leverage Oracle for corp. fleet sales :)