Electronics giant Sony rumored for potential Apple acquisition - Page 2

I don't see Apple buying Sony, but I would love, love, love for them to buy Adobe. Adobe's support is the worst possible.

Apple owning Adobe would get them what? Exactly?

C.

This just goes to show how stupid rumors like this get started. Sculley makes a comment and some analysis says apple has enough money to by sony and the next thing you know Apple is buying Sony...

People are idiots but yet again someone made some big money on this rumor.

Apples is only to going to buy companies which are small and can be easily integrated into apple and which provides an element to jobs bigger picture. You just have to look at Apples track record on this subject to realize what are buy out targets and Adobe is not one of them nor is Disney.

Even more stupid than the Facebook rumor. I'd much rather see Apple buy someone, for example, like Pioneer with a market cap of 1B and some of the best TV and audio technology in the industry.

Spending between 33 and 50B on Sony makes little sense. Steve admired the Sony of 25 years ago, and wanted to be like the Sony of 25 years ago - not the Sony of today. If Sony could be bought for a few billion, then perhaps I'd entertain the idea, but not when it takes all of Apple's cash away and makes no stratigic sense, really.

I'm disappointed in AI for running with this trash-story.

The most stupid takeover rumor that I have read: Lenovo wants to buy AMD. I read that yesterday in yahoo financial news.

Agreed. Personally, I think the daily market trading runs on stupidity and misinformation. I can see the people at the top laughing as all the would-be Gordon Geckos work their ETRADE accounts into a frenzy, never stopping to to think before they act.

Great! I want a slimmer PS3.

Yeah, and all those great product-market segments like TVs, home/car audio/video, recording/music label business, etc. must be why Sony lost ¥40B in FY2010, on top of a ¥100B loss in 2009.

Do continue.....

Oh, I think it's a fun story! Leads to all kinds of interesting conversation.

Everyone knows that the probability that it will happen is zero.

Simple. With a handful of gadgets and a couple of little ole Mac branded pc's Apple has enough cash on hand to buy the former gadget king of the electronic universe. And they made that pile of cash before they introduced their tv, created their movie studio and record labels, and before gaming came to the Atv.

Knowing Apple, they made profits on the Hi-Fi that other manufacturers would consider to be a success. It just wasn't enough to hold Apples interest.

IMHO Sony took diversification to far and lost their focus. Becoming very much like the Apple of the 90's.

The ability to stop its high-end workstation business from floundering. Without great Adobe software for the Mac, many fewer people would buy a high-end Mac.

I think that Adobe is more important to Apple than Apple is to Adobe. Adobe has been abusing Apple customers for years.

Now, that's an interesting observation. Isn't Apple even more diversified now, compared to the 90s?

In the words of one cybernetic organism:

"No way José"

Seriously though, buying up a big company has never been apple's style. Not that they couldn't do it, but I don't see apple ever trying to integrate such a large team... apple picks their people carefully and for the most part does everything in-house. Any company apple buys would have to be a PERFECT fit for apple's ecosystem, and I don't see Sony as being anything like that.

This just in:

Apple, with a stockpile of $51 billion, is buying Bridgestone Tire...

... oh, just a minute...

... no... they are buying Western Coal...

... hold on.. no... they are buying...

I know Steve liked Sony once upon a time, but what could Apple possibly have to gain by acquiring Sony? Maybe 15 years ago, but not anymore.

Hmm.. What could Apple possibly gain from buying Sony..?
I don't know.. their TV technology perhaps, or Playstation®, Sony Ericsson, Sony BMG, kill Blu-ray and VAIO?
I agree that it might not be the safest or easiest takeover, but I'm pretty sure that Apple could gain a lot from it. They could shutdown one of their main competitors within both the computer- and mobile industry, not to mention hammer a nail in the coffin of Blu-Ray technology.
And just imagine a real Apple TV, powered by Sony technology

Apple could also just go for it and buy Microsoft and Dell

It would make more sense for Apple to purchase a controlling interest in Disney. 51% stake. And
especially get control of the Board. Jobs already has 7% (I believe).

Apple will continue fighting with the Content providers for everything viewable. This way they will
have complete decision on what and how they can use Disney's content. This is pretty potent, if you think about it.
Of course they have Movies. Between the classics and the new fare coming out. Plus also they would get all of Pixar's stuff too. It would be a great start for them. But they also have ESPN. And with them comes all the Sports that they would need. (Of course not all the games would be included, but it would be an easier buy with this package and the Ads that Apple could provide).
Also, of great benefit would be Marvel. I think this also is gonna be huge for Disney. The current
movies that they have done, SpiderMan, X-Men, DareDevil, etc. is just the beginning. Soon, Thor,
Captain America, and others are fixing to come out. It could be a never ending smorgasbord of
classics coming to Apple.

The other Studios would be crazy in leaving Disney feed Apple with their Millions of devices, only their products.

One other thing. All those Theme Parks would also be a great place for Apple to sell stuff too.

The amount of people denouncing this as impossible or "never in a million years"
just goes to show how few people that participate on this site are actual financial investors.

Of course it could happen. Anything could. WTF do you know?

It will get them Adobe PageMill

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic, or are you forgetting AOL buying Time=Warner?

It would be illegal under Japanese law for Apple to purchase Sony, unlike America, Japan considers it almost like a foreign invasion for an outside company to take control of one of theirs and even if it weren't illegal, the chances of a Japanese company selling out to an American would be extremely low, Japanese people are extremely nationalistic and xenophobic and even a tad bit racist.

Oh the irony...

Isn't Sony traded on NYSE? I don't think Japanese law could prevent someone from buying the majority interest in Sony

For the most part, I agree. The largest Acquisition that I can recall Apple making was back in 97 or so was Apple buying Next for half a billion. The idea that Apple would spend multiple times that amount today is quite curious.

It's possible, but highly improbable.

Well... what you quoted was the part where I was working the fool the investors angle.

How to make money off of gaming? Lets look at Sony's approach to gaming. They make it difficult and expensive to develop for the Ps3 console and Ps handhelds. Not only are they making money off the hardware they charge a eye watering, sphincter tightening fee for the SDK. And with their licensing restrictions they can be just as or even more difficult for developers to work with then Apple. Resulting in fewer developers and game titles, and fewer consoles sold.

Apple leveraged the development work done on the Mac and iOs to release a reasonably easy to use, low cost SDK. Their are thousands of pages of support and training material on Apples support site for x-code that helps the developer. Apple then gives the developer a fantastic market place, visited by millions of potential customers, to sell their products. Thus making it more desirable, easier and cost effective to develop for iOs then for Sony Ps and PS3.

In the end, the iTunes eco system, wide variety of apps and games result in a product that is attracting customers by the millions. Apple then eats the Nintendo Ds, and Sony Ps lunch and makes obscene amount of cash whilst generating a large loyal following.
Then they add the next must have little feature that drives sales to new records.

From what I have observed in the gaming market I think Sony has lost this genration of the console wars. IMHO.

It has been highly reported that roughly half of Adobe's business is with the Mac - that makes it highly unlikely that Adobe is going to abandon them anytime soon and the huge windows based business is highly unlike what Apple would be interested in obtaining.

On second thought, it just won't happen because Jobs is a very hands-on CEO and I believe he very well knows that there just isn't enough hours in a day for him to adequately (by his standards) oversee an Apple-Sony behemoth.

Apple would never acquire Sony. The cultures of the two companies are just too different, and both are just way to big. However, the company I see being bought up by Apple is Nintendo. They are very similar in their market philosophy, both make products that they very aggressively try to make family friendly, despite it costing them some sales. Nintendo has kind of run the course for their current hardware generation, and are needing something pretty revolutionary to stay relevant. Besides this, Nintendo, like Apple, have always kind of went to the beat of their own drum, and in many cases, like Apple, been the better for it. Apple needs a company that has lots of valuable franchises, which Nintendo has. Nintendo could use some help I think when it comes to hardware. But in the end they are both about "The Experience" and "Playability" which I think makes them a natural match.

Though adobe customers have an (much worse) option other than the Mac. What they don't have a credible option for is products other than adobe's.

I think Apple should use some of that 51 billion to put Americans to work. Why not start manufacturing their parts in the USA? Create more Jobs, Steve! (pun intended).

Seriously, large companies in the US are sitting on top of huge cash assets that they should be spending to create jobs.

If people are not employed, they can't buy things.

It will never ever happen. Sony has nothing worthwhile for apple. Apple already has a better music player and phone, and there have to be much cheaper companies to aquire if apple is really getting serious about going into the TV market. People may argue with me on this one, but everyone knows that Sony just cant get anything right anymore. They have so many failed formats ( except blu ray, which was the smart move) , they totally flopped with the PS3, as their own personal game studio is the only exclusives they have left, and Xbox and Wii have outsold them. Sony does think different just like Apple, but Sony just cant get it right anymore. It would be a horrible rep for apple to get. Apple doesnt need Sony's headache and their few(if any) benefits.

I'm thinking and thinking.. WHAT could Apple be interested in with Sony?

To make AppleTV integrated in an actual TV?
To halt BluRay production?
To make all BluRay discs iTunes compatible?
To introduce iAds on Playstations.
To get Sony's factories.
...
Does this include Sony pictures? That could be possibly antitrust to run a movie store and own the largest movie distributor.
... I don't know.. Seems far fetched. If there truly is a plan to bid there must be some serious plans, based on information and visions not currently known. Seems far fetched to me..

Hang on - Apple and Sony worked together on the first Mac. They were developing a new disc format to replace the floppy but it didn't get finished.

Then Apple and Sony worked together on the Powerbook 100 in the 1990s. And Steve likes Sony. He won't be happy to see them loose their way like they have.

Agreed. This rumor was started and propagated by day traders who pry upon the gullible and misinformed.

Someone explain to us why Apple would buy Sony? To sell Apple re-branded clock radios? To get "free" licenses for Blu-ray drives?

While I am sure that would be great, the problem is that it probably isn't up to Steve to make those choices. Adding manufacturing would be a costly endeavor that cannot compete with other companies who insist on Asian suppliers. I simply doubt that the board will go along with an idea that will inevitably loose money without a guarantee that it will increase revenues. The only way this could work would be if US manufacturing can approach the output that Asian suppliers can - I just don't think that they can - not unless the industry as as whole makes a move.

Apple hires local where they can, but manufacturing in the US just isn't something that the board will go for unless there is a clear profit for them.

Apple will only by something that integrates them vertically i.e. a supplier or major customer. That could be a recordlabel or a mapcompany or a television network or a cloud service company or a cpu manufacturer or a telephone network or a social network.

It will not by a competitior such as sony. In that case it would buy a small part (record label).

However, they might just buy a part of the companies to be able to persue them to cooperate? (Kind of like how steve get disney to cooperate.)

That's what I think.

Apple has nothing to gain from such an acquisition, Sony is a dinosour that is stagnant and has zero relevance in the tech industry today.

They should abolish that rule as it's holding Japan back. Foreign investment would help refocus management and that is exactly what Japan needs.

This sounds more like a Christmas present for Steve. All Sony really has is PlayStation and TV's. I would prefer they bought Adobe.

That's not entirely fair.