What is Apple going to buy?

[Pliablemoose]

Steve On What To Do With All That Money

We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along... we're in a unique position to take advantage of [them] because of our strong cash position... We'd like to continue to keep our powder dry because we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future.
​

Apple's doesn't buy up companies as frequently as Google or Microsoft, but when they do it's clear what they're after: Liquid Metal patents for sturdier devices. Lala to someday put iTunes in the cloud. PA Semi to make their own mobile processors. So whatever Apple's saving money for now, know that it's going to be big.

http://gizmodo.com/5667183/shit-my-jobs-says-earnings-call-edition

Apple has 24 billion in cash right now...

WTF are they going to buy?

 

[zerocool84]

http://gizmodo.com/5667183/shit-my-jobs-says-earnings-call-edition

Apple has 24 billion in cash right now...

WTF are they going to buy?

Patent lawsuits

Money to sue people and money to pay out when they get sued seeing as everyone is suing everyone in cellphone land.

 

[foghorn67]

GM, Boeing, and Saudi Arabia. Geesh, that is a ton of cash.

 

[herkulease]

Like Microsoft during the tech boom, keep yourself a war chest to buy up people, battle lawsuits, or eventually line the pockets of your investors.

Microsoft had a massed nearly 70 billion in cash, when they started paying out dividends.
they had paid out a ridiculous 30 billion in one year.

 

[Patranus]

Facebook? Eh, probably not. Just another MySpace

Netflix? Has a market cap of 8 billion and would solidify a foothold on streaming media. I could definitely see int happening.

ARM? Probably not but that would end pretty much any Android competition.

Yahoo!? Again, probably not.

My money would be on Netflix unless someone else has a better idea.

 

[SunnyD]

Facebook? Eh, probably not. Just another MySpace

Netflix? Has a market cap of 8 billion and would solidify a foothold on streaming media. I could definitely see int happening.

ARM? Probably not but that would end pretty much any Android competition.

Yahoo!? Again, probably not.

My money would be on Netflix unless someone else has a better idea.

Netflix isn't going to happen. Right now there are really only two online streaming media services that sell or rent movies... Netflix and iTunes. DOJ and FTC won't let it happen.

 

[Deeko]

ARM? Probably not but that would end pretty much any Android competition.

I believe Apple used to own ARM. Although it wouldn't kill Android, even if they locked out competitors (which would be stupid, they'd be losing many millions of customers), Android et al would switch to something like Moorestown.

 

[akugami]

Apple once owned 47% in the company that developed the original ARM processor. The processor was built almost specifically for...drumroll....the Apple Newton. Apple later fell on hard financial times and sold their shares for $800 million.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Netflix isn't going to happen. Right now there are really only two online streaming media services that sell or rent movies... Netflix and iTunes. DOJ and FTC won't let it happen.

Amazon has a fair sized footprint in the sector...

There's been a fair bit of collaboration between Netflix and Apple, and I'm sure Apple would love it to be more exclusive to the iOS universe...

 

[tatteredpotato]

Apple once owned 47% in the company that developed the original ARM processor. The processor was built almost specifically for...drumroll....the Apple Newton. Apple later fell on hard financial times and sold their shares for $800 million.

Even if Apple did buy ARM, many companies would probably still be able to develop ARM processors for at least a little while due to existing licensing agreements. Qualcomm, for example, only licensed an ISA from ARM, and the Snapdragon micro-architecture is all of their own design, so they can continue refining the Snapdragon for as long as their license for the ARM ISA is valid. Of course this all hinges on how licensing agreements are written up.

I'm sure some other company would come along and fill any holes in the market with a new ISA should this happen, and since Android Applications are all contained within the JVM google wouldn't have to worry about compatibility issues with existing applications. Same goes for Microsoft having Applications run in .NET.

 

[Deeko]

Amazon has a fair sized footprint in the sector...

There's been a fair bit of collaboration between Netflix and Apple, and I'm sure Apple would love it to be more exclusive to the iOS universe...

I'd imagine the cable companies themselves have a huge chunk of the streaming movie market too, I don't have statistics but I would think more than Netflix or Apple.

Anyway, while Apple might want to buy Netflix to eliminate a major competitor & gain their streaming technology IP, I doubt Netflix would be receptive to that. In the last year they've greatly increased their reach across platforms and wouldn't want to be stuck on iOS, not to mention their huge physical movie business that doesn't really mesh with Apple.

 

[foghorn67]

Facebook? Eh, probably not. Just another MySpace

Netflix? Has a market cap of 8 billion and would solidify a foothold on streaming media. I could definitely see int happening.

ARM? Probably not but that would end pretty much any Android competition.

Yahoo!? Again, probably not.

My money would be on Netflix unless someone else has a better idea.

They couldn't do that if they bought ARM. lol. That's like Sony saying no more digital sensors and batteries for anyone else.

 

[theeedude]

They are going to buy time.

 

[akugami]

Even if Apple did buy ARM, many companies would probably still be able to develop ARM processors for at least a little while due to existing licensing agreements. Qualcomm, for example, only licensed an ISA from ARM, and the Snapdragon micro-architecture is all of their own design, so they can continue refining the Snapdragon for as long as their license for the ARM ISA is valid. Of course this all hinges on how licensing agreements are written up.

I'm sure some other company would come along and fill any holes in the market with a new ISA should this happen, and since Android Applications are all contained within the JVM google wouldn't have to worry about compatibility issues with existing applications. Same goes for Microsoft having Applications run in .NET.

I'm just saying that in the early days before there was really a mobile device computing market like today, Apple owned a large share in the company that produced ARM processors. I believe the original ARM CPU was developed specifically with the Newton in mind.

I personally don't believe Apple will buy ARM. They might invest in ARM, a minority share, but I don't think they want to buy ARM and manage it. History itself would say this is not out of the question since Apple once co-owned PowerPC and ARM. It makes sense to make a larger investment in ARM since so many mobile devices use the ARM architecture and ARM is designed for the mobile space whereas offerings from others like Intel are more power hungry at this time. It just doesn't make sense to actually buy ARM outright since Apple is primarily a systems designer and integrator. They are not primarily an engineering company.

I also believe that ARM would languish if Apple were to buy it. Apple is not exactly a friendly competitor and if they owned a majority share in ARM, I think many companies would actively look at alternatives. For the exact same reason why I find it ludicrous nVidia fans were condemning AMD for not adopting PhysX, I think Apple's competitors would have to consider not adopting ARM. You'd be at the mercy of your largest competitor.

 

[tdawg]

Amazon has a fair sized footprint in the sector...

There's been a fair bit of collaboration between Netflix and Apple, and I'm sure Apple would love it to be more exclusive to the iOS universe...

I would die if Netflix was allowed to be bought by Apple.

 

[coolVariable]

Would make more sense for Apple to buy MGM, Lionsgate and some other studios vs. Netflix.
Why buy a company that duplicates infrastructure and only owns temporary streaming rights vs. buying the underlying streaming rights and expanding the existing infrastructure.

I don't see them going after either! (The itunes music experience shows that Apple is quite happy/content being the "dumb pipe")

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Apple has 51 billion in cash on hand.

 

[Patranus]

I would die if Netflix was allowed to be bought by Apple.

What do you mean "allowed"?

Netflix has a market cap of 8 billion.
(Edit: Ouch, now 7.5 billion)
Apple has 50 billion cash on hand.

 

[tatteredpotato]

I'm just saying that in the early days before there was really a mobile device computing market like today, Apple owned a large share in the company that produced ARM processors. I believe the original ARM CPU was developed specifically with the Newton in mind.

I'm pretty sure you're right about that too. I was just at a talk about the ARM architecture a couple weeks ago and they briefly went over ARMs origins with the Apple Newton. They also mentioned that the iPhone 3GS has 11 ARM cores inside of it.

I personally don't believe Apple will buy ARM. They might invest in ARM, a minority share, but I don't think they want to buy ARM and manage it. History itself would say this is not out of the question since Apple once co-owned PowerPC and ARM. It makes sense to make a larger investment in ARM since so many mobile devices use the ARM architecture and ARM is designed for the mobile space whereas offerings from others like Intel are more power hungry at this time. It just doesn't make sense to actually buy ARM outright since Apple is primarily a systems designer and integrator. They are not primarily an engineering company.

I also believe that ARM would languish if Apple were to buy it. Apple is not exactly a friendly competitor and if they owned a majority share in ARM, I think many companies would actively look at alternatives. For the exact same reason why I find it ludicrous nVidia fans were condemning AMD for not adopting PhysX, I think Apple's competitors would have to consider not adopting ARM. You'd be at the mercy of your largest competitor.

I don't really think that they would buy ARM either, but I suppose if it provided them a means to screw over the competition then they could consider it. Then again in that regards the sale would probably be shot down by the government if it would have that substantial of an impact on the market.

As for actual purchases, it seems that Apple likes to avoid buying well known companies, so I don't think a buy of netflix is likely either. It'll most likely be some small to medium sized companies who are experienced in a market they are looking to get into or expand.

 

[Deeko]

What do you mean "allowed"?

Netflix has a market cap of 8 billion.
(Edit: Ouch, now 7.5 billion)
Apple has 50 billion cash on hand.

Antitrust was already mentioned, plus someone has to be willing to sell in order for someone to buy. You can't just say "I'm buying this!" and its done.

 

[zsdersw]

Apple is going to buy its critics, but that won't take more than a couple million $.

 

[Patranus]

If Apple was really serious about entering the living room they would buy Plex, use that as their front end, and further develop a home media solution independent of iTunes.
(With iTunes being the means of purchasing content but not storing it locally)

 

[theeedude]

Maybe they'll buy a wireless carrier, say T-mobile.

 

[Patranus]

Antitrust was already mentioned, plus someone has to be willing to sell in order for someone to buy. You can't just say "I'm buying this!" and its done.

Antitrust for what?

There are plenty of media outlets available aside from iTunes and Netflix. Just because something is popular and you combine it with something else that is popular doesn't mean it is an illegal monopoly.

 

[zerocool84]

Antitrust for what?

There are plenty of media outlets available aside from iTunes and Netflix. Just because something is popular and you combine it with something else that is popular doesn't mean it is an illegal monopoly.

Maybe the way you see it but that's not the way the government sees it.