Steve Jobs: Apple will use $51B for big moves, not 'stupid' ones - Page 2

Perhaps rather then buy a company, Apple could roll out its own LTE communications company and rid itself its reliance on the current AT&T et al. camp here in the US.

Apple is now essentially a mobile communications company. What better way to serve its customers and to control the user experience than by providing the network bandwidth themselves?

Yes when you really think about it only Photoshop and perhaps Illustrator are required. Apple could develop their own for a lot less.

Maybe they should buy Qualcomm. The potential of their technology in all iOS and laptop devices would be great.

Why does everyone think they need to buy a huge company to spend some of that money?

Why not start building? They just spent $1B on that data center in North Carolina. I could see Apple spending a few billion on a chip foundry and manufacturing their own silicon like the A4.

Many of us half suspected this idea was a possibility and that Apple would bid on the frequencies made available when HD went prime time leaving the old TV bands up for grabs.

Buy the Beatles music rights! I don't know why, buy do it, get them on itunes on let's get on with it.

- AT&T?
_ Adobe
- Developers & make some kick-ass software
- Dell (get rid of them once and for-all.

I agree with those who say - they will likely buy companies that will help lower their bottom line or companies that are just a bit of a pain in the ass to have around.

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That scenario would far better fit Steve's MO to date.

FB has an enormous amount of potential but nobody has really figured out how to tap those reserves... and I certainly don't have the answer.

A few big companies have limped in but nobody has placed a value bet.

Yes DELL ... just give to the shareholders their money back

While not originally anything to do with racism, the word "tarbaby" has a lot of bad racial overtones in large parts of the USA. Just sayin.


The problem I have is that if we are honest (and I know I will get pilloried for even saying this out loud), Apple is really not that good at application software. They've had some hits but they've had a lot of misses as well. Apple makes excellent OS level software, but once you get into the apps, they are not really that good.

Apple would do better to get companies interested in making application software for the Mac that works well and is better suited to the Mac than buying Adobe and trying to do it all themselves. They already make all the iLife software themselves, and all the iWork software as well. If they made all the pro level creative software, there wouldn't be a reason for anyone to make software for them at all.

It's back to iTunes if there is any truth. I can't see any other use except for an expanded iTunes market and as i already said a decent interface for FB with Apple at the helm. It's a stretch though. More likely Steve is trying to get some mutually beneficial agreement. But these are strange times ...

How about buying Apple someof its own stock....especially on a pullback? Sales grew at the rate of 70% and PE is around 16. Other than that, Apple is better off just buying key technologies like speciality software like the multi touch it bough a few years ago, or the chip tech used in A4. These small purchases are less of a gamble, do not pollute the balance sheet, etc.

A company like Facebook would add too much good will and intangible to its balance sheet. There is no synergy with Apple. Anyway, if Apple wants a website like Facebook, why not build its own and a better one? Sounds ridiculous paying $Bs for something that has minimal assets, and questionable economics.

Too much money gives anybody hubris. Apple has avoided that... just hope it does not change.

yes but apple can take the "mundane" and make it "magical." Remember, they weren't the first mp3 player, or first smartphone, or first tablet computer. They cut the cameras and printers because they were just like the rest. If Apple makes a TV, it will only be because they feel its better than all other TVs on the market.

Facebook may be the next MySpace, but even if that's true, it's an exaggeration to think that it "only has a couple of years." For starters, MySpace hasn't been cool for at least ten years, but it's still hanging around and still has tons of users.

Secondly, MySpace exploded when the average Schmo discovered the Internet and road the wave of consumer desktop expansion. Facebook started on the desktop but is basically riding the new mobile platform expansion. It will be at least ten years before anything comes along to even challenge it, possibly a lot longer.

How about - pay a dividend.

Woop. My bad. Sorry.

It always struck me as a brilliant metaphor for getting stuck worse and worse in something you should have just not gotten involved in in the first place.

This is what people don't understand - Apple is already serving its shareholders VERY well as measured by stock price. They don't need to artificially boost stock price by repurchasing shares. Shares outstanding is already under a billion - look at MSFT - they have WAYYYY more shares outstanding. Apple's is low enough as it is.

As long as the price keeps rising, there's not gonna be any legitimate pressure to repurchase or pay a dividend. Not that apple would listen, anyway, lol.

is the stock not rising fast enough to meet investor's expectations? Dividends are for cash-cow companies lacking growth potential. Case in point - Microsoft.

Which was what my first sentence said (that you didn't quote). "I wondered about this too. However, if Apple does TV then it will not be like any TV we have ever seen. That is for sure."

I agree. However much I'd love a revenue stream I'd rather Apple stayed very healthy for the long haul.

And it should still be read that way still IMHO. Sometimes political correctness goes overboard. If tar happened to be green there would be no such issue. The fact is you are correct it is a brilliant metaphor and a great story.

This.

I said the same in an earlier thread.

Does Apple even need to buy Facebook?

Forget the craziness about buying them outright or the naive idea that Apple can build something to match and beat Facebook. Just invest a billion or two into them. At current estimated valuations, a $1B investment gives Apple 3-4% of the company. That's enough to keep them close, out of the hands of an enemy, make them cooperate in Apple's longer term social networking plans (whatever those might be.)

I doubt they'd buy Adobe. They'd have to pay too much ($14B) and get too little (stuff they could probably re-create themselves.) Though, arguably, this is a better option than buying Facebook.

I suppose thy could buy AMD ($5B). That might be really interesting.

Apple could buy Java, then continue to prosecute Google for Java license violations in Android.
It would be worth every penny, just for the irony factor.

Or maybe Apple could buy Danger, then make a bid at Yahoo. The Danger acquisition would...

What? Microsoft already did both those things? Oops, sorry. I forgot about the 'no stupid acquisitions'
phrase in Steve's statement. My bad.

Acrobat is the cash cow at Adobe. Plus, Dreamweaver and inDesign are really good apps as well. Of course Flash would not be much of an asset considering the current bad press coming out of Cupertino.

Adobe also has Coldfusion/JRun, which although not very popular any longer, having been eclipsed by the much less expensive PHP, it is still a fully compliant JEE JSP server on the scale of IBM's Domino. They also have a site analytics application omniture which could be useful against Google.

And there is the huge Font folio that Adobe owns as well.

Apple doesn't need to buy any social site when they are fully capable of making their own . Besides, facebook and myspace have the same damn people per se. Both are nothing but hangouts and the users migrate all over the place.

Buy Land
Build 21st Century Factory
Make Apple "Made in USA"
in 20 years, every other consumer electronics co. will come begging for apple to make their products

Good point...If I was a TV manufacturer I would go to Apple and propose my best, largest, thinnest screen and make them a TV with "Apple inside!" to be sold in the Apple stores only. (Then eventually, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Radio Shack and 7-Eleven stores)

the new 3DTV is not selling well and the TV manufacturers are scrambling to find a "differentiator" to set them apart. If I was in tech I would do everything I could to hook up with the Apple train!

After all, it wasn't too long ago that Sony made a Trinitron Monitor (who thinks up these names?) for Apple with the Apple logo on it.

Best

The word you want is 'mired'.

It has an Irish connotation too - boggy ground - making it perfect.

Yes, that's the exact original meaning, which I figured since you were from Ireland, is probably what you meant.

Ok, you convinced me ... Buy Adobe

I've put this question out there many times and never had a response (from someone who knows such stuff)...

But isn't it possible assuming Apple's worth say 300 Billion presently...that if the market should take a silly 6-18 month nose dive (not sure it would)...say to half it's value...then Apple's at 150B...then couldn't Steve/Apple potentially borrow 100B based on cash-flow levels and cash in hand and actually buy Apple back from the shareholders?

My internet prediction is that's what Steve is waiting for!

Stranger things have happened! Ever heard of Virgin...Richard Branson.

By 1987, Virgin Group PLC's sales had risen to more than $230 million; when combined with sales at Virgin Atlantic, Branson's companies were pulling in over $350 million annually. Interestingly, following the October 1987 stock market crash, Branson took the company private again in 1988 through a management buyout, restructured his companies, and sold 25 percent of his Virgin Music Group for $170 million.

That would be great! My only complaint with Apple is they prefer to build in China and put all their products on gas guzzling 747's.

I know the economics and the non-existant environmental controls...Autoworkers here in the USA, including the foreign transplants get $28/hr, Mexico gets $7/hr, India, $4/hr and China a $1/hr.

The Chinese will buy 11 million cars next year.

Also, next year China will be the largest manufacturer in the world and by 2020 will have the largest economy....not good!

Apple, could we have a few factories here? I would be happy to pay an extra $10 for my iPhone!

Perfectly sensible name if you ask me. Most CRT tubes have an elecTRON gun. Sony came up with a CRT that used three instead of one. TRI means three so TRIniTRON makes perfect sense

What would Apple ever need in Facebook? I mean seriously? Facebook is just a big advertising engine with lots of privacy problem. It may generate cash, but then again, so does Apple products. Most Apple products integrate with Facebook already and Ping will likely come on shortly. Why spend billions on that?

Historically Apple buys small companies with large upside in multiples for the investment. Yes they are keeping their proverbial powder dry for a large acquisition but I still can't see what company they would really want to own. A potential large acquisition would primarily serve a market Apple has little penetration. And I'm sure the board of directors at Apple is talking about potential targets. But nothing makes sense to me unless Apple really changes who they are.

For example, they could own much of the business space by buying Dell. But Dell is riding a stable business with stagnant profits and no vision. Steve doesn't want the corporate market bad enough to deal with a company like that and its boring machines.

Adobe could be acquired but it would raise the ire of anti-trust regulators (not insurmountable) and Adobe doesn't have a lot of great upside, unless Steve loses his mind and starts loving Flash. Sure they generate a lot of cash, but so does Apple.

ARM? Qualcomm? If this happened, Apple would end up selling products to all their phone/tablet competitors. Awkward. Many of either of those companies' customers might look elsewhere.

Again, who has something that Apple really wants?

Off topic but interesting: Mired is nice but it wasn't about just a word. The Uncle Remus Story by Joel Chandler Harris was an Aesop's type lesson where punching the tar baby was a really bad idea. Far more than a mere word. He may have based the term tar baby on (ironically) African folk lore which had a similar a creature.

Yep, "perfect!"

Totally correct: "The name Trinitron was derived from trinity, meaning the union of three, and tron from electron tube, after the way that the Trinitron combined the three separate electron guns of other CRT designs into one."

My first ever TV (That I bought) was a 13" Trinitron in a wood cabinet with a dish type antenna. I loved it to bits even if I did have to sit really close

Actually, Oracle bought Java. But we get the joke.

You people you should think outside the box, let them buy ... a country.
Maybe the Cayman Islands would fit the bill.