15 Billion dollars, Apple? Someone is doing some Christmas shopping
Tue, 12/11/2007 - 04:23 — Quincy Pince-Nez
 So it came out last week that Apple had been saving a bit of money. They are likely going to buy something and the internet blew up with ideas on what that should be. Ars came up with Adobe, Tivo, Nintendo. We aren't feeling any of those - here's why:
- Adobe - there is too much overlap in products. Final Cut/Premiere. Aperture/Lightroom, etc, etc. Adobe has a great portfolio of applications but overall the line isn't close enough to Apple's core competency. Plus the two companies aren't getting along that well anymore. Adobe is also pricey.
- Tivo - It is a great technology for the next 3-5 years. Soon though, networks will be broadcasting their content over the net by themselves. The technology to leverage advertising will make them more than the currently falling costs of broadcasting over the net - so it won't matter. As someone who has to watch college football on a slingbox, I say hurry the fsck up.
- Nintendo - great idea, but they are too expensive. Any buyout of Nintendo would have to be more like a merger. Can you see Steve Jobs agreeing to a merger and taking in top management? Us neither.
So, we've come up with three companies that Apple should buy - and which they actually have a shot at. Yep, telecoms:
- Clearwire. Fresh off their split from Sprint talks, Clearwire is looking for some more dough. Apple has 15 billion reasons why they should come into the Apple fold. Oh, btw, WiMAX is great match for Apple's new mobile platform.
- Skype - Recently devalued and a bargain. Ebay is looking for a buyer. Over 100 million users. VOIP. Phone Numbers. iPod, iPhone, tablets...it all makes much more sense.
- 700MHz spectrum. Not a company per se - but a huge amount of power in the telecommunications industry for the next 20+ years. Apple would likely partner with Google and a few other technology giants (MS?) on snapping this up. It goes without saying that tech companies are sick of letting the telecoms tell them how they can use and sell their products. This will be an interesting auction. NFL draft, eat your heart out.
- EDIT - didn't think of it but makes perfect sense. a Studio! Maybe they even roll their own. With the other studios starting to give up on Apple and in some cases giving preferential treatment to other online distributors (see Amazon's DRM free music from Universal), it might be time for Apple to move down the value chain a little. Apple has one of the biggest distribution channels on Earth in iTunes and can offer new artists a really big, hip audience in a tenth of the time it takes traditional studios to get content out. Oh. And why just music? El Jobso knows a few things about running a movie studio (Pixar). - thanks D-Jents
Will Apple put its feet into the telecom world? $15 billion is a whole lot more fun to spend than distribute to shareholders. Maybe we'll get some news at Macworld on January 14-18. OH btw- the telecom auction is on Jan 17. ;)
Latest News from 9 to 5 Mac
|
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Comments
apple buying adobe? apple
apple buying adobe? apple buying nintendo? oh my god, guys @ arstechnica are insane...
Apple should buy Windows and
Apple should buy Windows and then burn it to the ground....thats a good investment
Great idea! All they need is
Great idea! All they need is $500 billion or so in cash, and they can buy Microsoft and do whatever they want with all the assets. Hey, Apple's already banked $15 billion after only 30 years or so of operations, so they ought to be there any day now.
Apple should just buy Dell -
Apple should just buy Dell - just for the ultimate irony that Michael Dell's comment 10 years ago would bring.
Sell off apple and give the money to the shareholders? Ya.
Buy Adobe's largely Carbon
Buy Adobe's largely Carbon code base? $25+ billion just so Apple can rewrite millions of lines of code? That'd pay for a lot of high iteration development over the next 3 years. But in Ars' defense they did effectively reject their own first two ideas. :?
On the other hand if Jobs wants to get serious about his 'hobby' I agree TiVo makes sense. At the moment it'd mean losing money at a professional rate vs. the current ametuer rate. :) But still it is a way to step up to the next level...with the patents to back it up. And it is more digestable. You don't want to risk totally screwing up a winning corp culture bringing on too many people at once.
The rest of the money? I don't think Apple needs to be in a rush to blow this cash just yet. Now come next fall if they've racked up another $5 billion or something then sure they can think about a major investment. But right now low teens is just a healthy reserve against lean years. Why bother putting in the cash for Google's bid if you can let Google take the risk and manage building the infrastructure? That sort of thing is getting out of Apple's comfort zone [for now]. Instead just firm handshake to sign on as a leasee closer to when there is something to run on. Covered!
If Apple would invest in a
If Apple would invest in a Telco that wouldn´t just be in the States. If you - as a globale acting company - want to combine mobile appliances with Boadband access, you would have to possition yourself on a globale scale.
- Therefore you spend the money to become a Global MVNO for broadband access over time.
- Or you partner with a another Global acting Company or mulitple Companies and use them just as a broadband pipe
So what about a company producing consumer electronics for the living room? And why not Sony? or...
Maybe Sony, but will my
Maybe Sony, but will my Apple PlayStation 4 still play my PS2 games?
Apple may sell to different
Apple may sell to different countries but they remain a US centric US company. And they seem largely happy with that for now. Buying and stepping into a global telco? Now that would be insane, especially when you consider how those companies themselves form.
Apple is definitely an
Apple is definitely an American centric company. We're still waiting for legal iPhones here in Canada!
dude, sony is worth a lot
dude, sony is worth a lot more than $15 billion....
how much is EMI worth?
how much is EMI worth?
55B was Sony's market
55B was Sony's market capitalization. EMI is worth less than 4B.
$55B, as of today.
$55B, as of today.
How about Mobile Operating
How about Mobile Operating System Ten?
MOST or MOSX?
Elgato? -- wish they would,
Elgato? -- wish they would, though that would just be for small change...
Apple should buy $150million
Apple should buy $150million of Microsoft shares, just to help them out a bit!
Yeah, but if history repeats
Yeah, but if history repeats itself, the tradeoff might be to develop iLife etc. for Windows, and I'm sure Apple wouldn't want to give up its switcher-bait :-)
Remember, MSFT is a company
Remember, MSFT is a company with a $330B market capitalization that had a net income of $14B last year; that's about double AAPL's mkt cap, and over triple their net income. Their profits seem to grow every year. They may have crappy products, but they're VERY healthy financially.
On the one hand, it's nice
On the one hand, it's nice to imagine how Apple would improve some service or another for the customers. On the other hand, a takeover almost always means somebody is going to lose their job. In almost any of the telcos case, it would probably be customer support, the people who probably need their job most.
Other than that, I don't care what they buy with their money, but if they were to branch into Telcos, it would be nice if they could make it a global rather than US-centric presence. Like the rest of their products. Except the iPhone. And video in the iTunes store.
Dell. not all of it of
Dell. not all of it of course, they could never afford that, but a large share nonetheless. and for the tradeoff, Dell would also promote and sell Apple as an alternative. Dell is the most popular computer store world wide. Apple should make Dell a premium reseller !
This seems like the Mac &
This seems like the Mac & Windows all over again. Or Java & C#. Everyone is so impressed when MS makes an OK clone of another company's product that they mistake it for being great. Congratulations to MS for lowering consumers' expectations to such an absurd degree.
Why not buy NeoMedia?
Why not buy NeoMedia? They've got the IP to dominate permission-based, interactive commerce on mobile handsets...and they're on the financial rocks because of past management mistakes.
Did everyone else miss the
Did everyone else miss the two little hints they gave us as to the ultra-portable?
"Oh, btw, WiMAX is great match for Apple's new mobile platform."
If you remember Intel's previewed ultra-portable concept in May, you'll remember that WiMax was part of the feature set. Maybe this is the MacBook Mini, or whatever that we've been waiting for!
"OH btw- the telecom auction is on Jan 17. ;)"
I'm not sure if this is a hint or not, but that wink makes me think it could be... who knows?
God, I wish 9to5 would tell us everything they know. It seems like they have Steve Jobs as their source!
I was wondering why no one
I was wondering why no one has thought that they might start their own recording studio. I know it's an older idea, but still a good one. Allowing Indie artists to get their stuff on itunes faster and better sounding. Any thoughts?
That actually makes a whole
That actually makes a whole lot of sense! Nice one
Because of the already
Because of the already existing Apple Records that is on rather tense terms already for having Apple get into online music sales. Music production would blow over about as well as Toyota making an exact copy of the Ford Mustang.
They've already paid off
They've already paid off that bill. And the terms haven't been made public. - also 1 band - as great as they are- isn't worth 15Billion
My friends, i have read and
My friends, i have read and read all your comments, and instead of making a label why not buy one not itunes friendly labels and keep itunes music flowing for the years to come.
Its going upstream in their production chain, dont you think thats interesting
Apple buy Clearwire? Only if
Apple buy Clearwire? Only if they burn it down, take full credit for this action and leverage the backbone network to start it over. Clearwire is a screwed up, worthless organization (in my opinion, which is based on personal experience) that has little to offer anyone...
(I am an EX-Clearwire customer... but then the word customer is not accurate. It implies that I used their product... which never worked! Clearwire falls far below the expectations of many of its "clients.")
PS: the only difference between the definition of Clearwire clients and "plaintiffs" is one good class action attorney.
In all likelihood, the cost of starting from scratch would be worth not having the tarnished brand name association.
How about purchasing a
How about purchasing a chip-maker: what about AMD?
Post new comment