Behind Apple's potential courting of Tesla
Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed president & COO, weighs in on the potential relationship between Apple and Tesla.
Apple and Tesla could work together to provide back-seat entertainment options in the upcoming Tesla SUV, the Model X, according to Misek. That would provide a "nice, little incremental catalyst" for Apple shareholders as they look for the tech giant to delve into new product areas, he added.
"The bigger issue for investors of Apple, is that they get into a new category, whether it's the iWatch, whether it's more in-vehicle entertainment, whether it's updating the Apple TV set-top box," Misek said. "Investors are now hungry to see Apple get into a new category to try and restart growth."
(Read more: Apple, Time Warner Cable in Apple TV talks: Report)
Jon Steinberg, chief operating officer of BuzzFeed and a CNBC contributor, believes that an in-car entertainment collaboration between Apple and Tesla would have been too small a deal to make Apple send a high-powered M&A executive to meet with Musk. He also said Tuesday that a merger between the two companies remains outside the "realm of possibility."
What's left then? Steinberg believes it's all about batteries. The two companies could team up on a "giga factory" to develop lithium-ion batteries, which Apple would use in its devices and Tesla its vehicles, he said.
(Read more: The big bet that Tesla's upside is capped)
"My gut is that it's about the battery technology," Steinberg said during a later appearance on "Squawk on the Street." "You're talking about $25 billion for a company that has $150 billion in cash. It would be so outside the sweet spot for a company that generally doesn't do big acquisitions. The batteries make a lot of sense."
—By CNBC's Jeff Morganteen. Follow him on Twitter at @jmorganteen and get the latest stories from "Squawk on the Street." Reuters contributed to this report.
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