That's not always the case. It's common to do an asset sale when companies go bankrupt. I know. I've been involved in one such sale (on the buy side).
And let's not forget Tesla's largest shareholder is Elon Musk, who went on record to explicitly disparage Apple and its employees not too long ago. Do you think he would sell his beloved company to Apple? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/09/elon-musk...