What/who should Apple buy next?

Maya is not a given IMO. I'd be more excited if they got 3ds Max or SoftImage (won't happen).

Maybe they'll acquire a CPU maker! j/k

Take out a loan and buy MS, it's an investment that will pay in the long run

Apple should buy thehun.com and spruce up the design a little bit. That would benefit more computer users than anything else they could do.

[quote]Originally posted by sizzle chest:
<strong>Apple should buy thehun.com and spruce up the design a little bit. That would benefit more computer users than anything else they could do.</strong><hr></blockquote>

:eek:

What about Media 100 or Autodesys?

Im personally in favour of an Apple buy-out of Nvidia and ATi! Come on! What an incredible bang-for-the-buck that would be! For 3/4th the price of Adobe, Apple would have a virtual monopoly over GPU's, while simultaneously holding Microsoft and their gaming superiority at hostage!

. . . ::: pleading ::: but ughh! Im really serious! Doesnt anyone like that idea? Whats wrong with it?

<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

(seriously, though! Im serious! )

I STILL say Apple needs to buy Maya...

NOT Alias|wavefront, but just everything that is MAya... The programmers, engineers, source code, etc.

Mmmm, Apple Maya with RenderMan as a default renderer...!

[quote]Originally posted by pyr3:
<strong>Take out a loan and buy MS, it's an investment that will pay in the long run </strong><hr></blockquote>

Yeah! Buy MS and cancel all development of Windoze!

haha . . . Maya would be nice. But its not going to happen. SGI wouldnt let a sale of Maya to anyone happen even if its life depended on it (which, ironically, its life DOES depend on it )

Anyway . . . yup, yup . . a sale of Maya to Apple is unrealistic, but ATI and nVidia to Apple isnt . . . come on, people! You know its going to happen!

(BTW, Mods: Does this thread really belong in software? Hmmm . . . I guess it could stay . . . but it just doesnt seem right here . . . )

palm they got get some of beos stuff to put in mac os.

buy out mottos ppc division.

or they could buy out sgi.

A few years ago Apple invested in Moto, Wasn't it around, $400 Million, If so, How much of the company overall would Apple Own? , or How much say and input does Apple get? ...

Thanks...

A small country.

[quote]Originally posted by Derrick 61:
<strong>

Yeah! Buy MS and cancel all development of Windoze! </strong><hr></blockquote>

With the DoJ acting as weak as they are, Apple would get slapped on the wrist with a "you're not a monopoly as long as you support WindowsXP for the next 5 years"

Apple should buy the DoJ like MS has.

Seriouly though, Apple should buy out Valve, and make a Half-Life/CS version for Mac. Valve has been sitting on their asses with the success of Half-Life and CS. Half-Life was based on the Quake 2 engine. I mean Quake THREE is getting old and this is based on the engine before that. The one that ID doesn't make anymore money on so they open-sourced it. Apple would get a LOT of sales of Half-Life/CS for Mac. They could buy out Valve and outsource the porting to Macplay of some other game-portng company. Half-Life/CS is THE game that people say, "well I can't play it on the mac though".

Another company would be, Westwood maybe. Port C & C series games to Mac? I dunno how popular that would be though.

[quote]Originally posted by murk:
<strong>Recent comments suggest the spending spree will continue. We all know that after the Apple Board of Directors, and perhaps Phil and Avie, the opinions and ideas Steve values most are those of AI members. So, what cool apps should they buy next? Maya is a given, but what else?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Buying out companies and shutting down support for other OS's - now who's had that accusation levelled at them before?

[quote]Originally posted by banana:
<strong>

Buying out companies and shutting down support for other OS's - now who's had that accusation levelled at them before?</strong><hr></blockquote>


Sure some will complain but it's pure strategy. I'm 90% sure I will buy an Xbox now because I want to play Halo and Halo 2 has just been announced. Clever acquisition for Microsoft. Did I complain when they bought Bungie..sure I did, it's natural.

[quote]Originally posted by hmurchison:
<strong>


Sure some will complain but it's pure strategy. I'm 90% sure I will buy an Xbox now because I want to play Halo and Halo 2 has just been announced. Clever acquisition for Microsoft. Did I complain when they bought Bungie..sure I did, it's natural.</strong><hr></blockquote>

No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?

[ 08-10-2002: Message edited by: banana ]</p>

Something that's been kicked around on comp.sys.mac.games.action is the idea of Apple buying a game company, like Blizzard or Sierra. They're both owned by Vivendi-Universal (or so I've been told), and as such, there's been some consideration of putting them up for sale.

If Apple bought out Blizzard, it might prevent Microsoft from buying them out and turning them into the next Bungie.

Ok, so this is wild, idle, completely inaccurate speculation that more than likely has no basis or grounding whatsoever in reality, but hey...this is AppleInsider.

Oh, and this is my first post, too.

It would be nice if Apple bought me a TiBook.

[quote]Originally posted by banana:
<strong>

No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yes it would. If Microsoft saw an advantage that could be legally gained by buying Quark then I would understand. Software users are always getting the shaft. mTropolis users got shafted from Quark Live Picture got shafted after shelling out $4k and watching LP get neglected. Mac users got somewhat shafted by Bungie. This is business and honestly if an app is good enough people will follow it to another platform.

I used to think Apple buying a Game Developer would be a good thing but I'm not too sure it's worth the envolvement. Producing games is expensive and risky if the game bombs. Bungie was Apple's best chance and they slept on them. The nice thing about games is they show off the power of your system and competing developers never complain because there's always room for good games in the consumers mind. Let's get Moki to pitch Ambrosia to Apple for say 15 Million

I think that Apple should imploy the reverse MS strategy of gaming. Buy out some gaming companies and release all the games on Mac first and PC port later. Of course this would only work on companies that make games that everyone wants like Quake / UT / WarCraft / StarCraft / etc. This is only because a completely new game on Mac wouldn't gain as much support as quickly since the Mac population is smaller than the PC population. I assume this is true, but I could be proven wrong and I would like to be proven wrong. I would like to see that a game released on ANY platform, as long as it's great game will get demand to be ported.

[quote]Originally posted by banana:
<strong>

No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Since the largest professional group os Mac users are design professionals, graphic designers, 3d modelers, etc. , Apple is trying to build up that market on themselves. MS was trying to get all user peroid to rally to them with the browser wars and such. Apple is trying to get all of a selected crowd of the people with the current buy-outs.

They are trying to solidify Apple's market position. If Apple relies on other companies like that, then those companies can always up and drop Mac support and leave Apple up a creek without a paddle.

My best analogy is that MS tried to get a monopoly on gas, something that everyone needs to use (see web browsers and word processors). Apple is just trying to get a monopoly on Diesel Fuel. deisel fuel only affects some people, but not the majority of people (I'm not taking into account the higher prices of products that are shipped by truck due to raises in diesel fuel prices). Not a great analogy, but you get the point. MS wanted the whole pie, while Apple is just vying for a piece of it and trying to make sure they keep that piece.

What a load of cobblers. When somebody decides a company has a majority right to a format etc, you cross the line.

Okay, I know I already chimed in with my thoughts on Apple purchasing Maya (source code, programmers/engineers, intellectual properties, Bill & Duncan, etc.) from Alias|wavefront...

But how about this one...?!?

CONFIRMED!!! APPLE PURCHASES ID SOFTWARE!!! DOOM3 TO BE MAC ONLY "FOR NOW..." SAYS JOBS.

Nothing like a little payback for micro$loth pulling that little Bungie thing...!

;^p

[quote]Originally posted by banana:
<strong>What a load of cobblers. When somebody decides a company has a majority right to a format etc, you cross the line.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Put yourself in Emagics place. You've spent enormous resources developing your software and the next thing you know PC users have cracked your Copy Protection and are using your product illegally. You make this sound like it wasn't a mutual decison. All I know is that Apple put 30million on the table for exclusive rights to emagic products and they scooped it up. Don't be made at Apple. Business is Business.

Palm stock is way cheap right now, Apple could buy them out cheap then slap a lil apple style on them and sell them as iPalms

[quote]Originally posted by banana:
<strong>What a load of cobblers. When somebody decides a company has a majority right to a format etc, you cross the line.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Who are you talking to? Not to my post I hope...my post never mentions that companies have any rights, I just explain the reasoning.

I think Apple should start up a game conversion department so they can convert PC games themselves. Who better to do it to get the most out of the hardware?

And by the way, at this point not too many people would cry if Quark were suddenly removed from existance. It's taking Quark 2 full years since OS X's release to get an OS X version of Quark out the door (Quark 6, available a year from now). That's absolutely laughable. The mass migration to InDesign has begun... Quark is dead in the water, they just don't know it yet.

Apple should buy :

Adobe (will never happen - even though its clear that Adobe want to focus on wintel in revenge for iMovie, FCP etc)

Macromedia (where is director X? - of course apple could always rewrite Hypercard . . .)

Alias Wavefront

Discrete ( lets get that 3DS MaX )

The compnay I'm gonna set up (for $500M)

if i were apple, i'd be trying to create a hedge against microsoft pulling out of the mac market. apple needs to secure the existence of a good office-like productivity suite as well as a browser. given that appleworks could be retooled to be more office-like, and open office already exists....i think having a competitive browser would be a priority.
we know they've already hired the guy who founded the chimera mozilla project. i say, buy omni. for a small amount of jack you get their cocoa written web browser plus omnigraffle and outline (which can be folded into a new appleworks). apple needs a browser that is fully developed and fast. in IE's place, i don't see a fully viable alternative unless apple helps to make one.

buy omni. cheap and useful.

[quote]Originally posted by koffedrnkr:
<strong>if i were apple, i'd be trying to create a hedge against microsoft pulling out of the mac market. apple needs to secure the existence of a good office-like productivity suite as well as a browser. given that appleworks could be retooled to be more office-like, and open office already exists....i think having a competitive browser would be a priority.
we know they've already hired the guy who founded the chimera mozilla project. i say, buy omni. for a small amount of jack you get their cocoa written web browser plus omnigraffle and outline (which can be folded into a new appleworks). apple needs a browser that is fully developed and fast. in IE's place, i don't see a fully viable alternative unless apple helps to make one.

buy omni. cheap and useful.</strong><hr></blockquote>

That's a great idea. Omni would be a good acquisition.

I vote for Real.

Then they could have QuickTime support the Real codecs as well, and get all the Real channels to pull more switchers.

[quote]Originally posted by spooky:
<strong>Apple should buy :

Adobe (will never happen - even though its clear that Adobe want to focus on wintel in revenge for iMovie, FCP etc)

Macromedia (where is director X? - of course apple could always rewrite Hypercard . . .)

Alias Wavefront

Discrete ( lets get that 3DS MaX )

The compnay I'm gonna set up (for $500M) </strong><hr></blockquote>

revenge for iMovie? iMovie is a consumer level product. All adobe's products are $100+. With emphasis on the '+'. iMovie in no way it eating into Adobe Prremiere sales. iMovie isn't a professional production suite. In case you didn't know, Windows has Windows Movie Maker too, maybe adobe should just shoot itself and drop out altogether, that would get revenge on both MS and Apple.

If it were up to me I would buy:

1. Newtek - Lightwave
2. Maya
3. 3ds max
4. A game developer, Blizzard, Id, Maxis, Valve
5. A company or two that port games over to the mac.

Oh yea... Maybe they could buy out a company such as soft pc, or someone who does windows emulation on the mac and build it into the operating system if possible. It is unix based so maybe they could get something out of the wine project who knows. If it's possible that would really rule for mac. However i bet its probably been tried before.

[ 08-14-2002: Message edited by: MicrosoftOsXp ]</p>

I too like the idea of them buying a game company. If Blizzard is affordable and for sale, that's the target. To my knowledge, they haven't released one unsuccessful game yet. Their attention to detail is amazing, even in games I don't like. Though I haven't tried Warcraft III yet.

I wouldn't mind seeing Apple purchase Palm, if only to make PDAs become better. But I think Jobs' comments about PDAs (that they're old news, and that their features are going to be folded into cell phones) means this isn't going to happen.

I suggested to Apple when they requested comments from recent Windows switchers (I switched in May/June 2002--meaning I ordered my first Apple iBook in May and received it in June) that they purchase Eudora from Qualcomm. If I have any regrets moving to the Mac, it's that Eudora absolutely sucked all of the sudden, where on Windows it was powerful, stable, and complete. Now that I've given up on Eudora (as well as Entourage after trying it with my day-job emails) for Apple's Mail.app, I no longer think purchasing Eudora is necessary, especially since Mail promises to be even better with the Jaguar version.

Hmm. I'd be intrigued if Apple purchased more developer tools. Like Codewarrior (from Qualcomm, isn't it?) or Director (from Macromedia--I can see this branded as Hypercard Director). They've purchased or developed their way into becoming music and film powerhouses. I think the next step to becoming the ultimate creative development platform (not that it isn't already) would be software development.

Or maybe more in the direction of Special Effects, cartooning, and digital animation. I don't think Adobe would sell After Effects, but there are smaller players out there. For animation, Maya might be possible, as would Toon Boom. I like Toon Boom's goal, but I don't like working in it. Any animation program with a more difficult learning curve than Flash from Macromedia has something to learn from Apple.

Interesting thoughts throughout this thread.

Alex.

Globle Crossing 280 Million is nothing for Apple. We coulda had one hell of a Private Network.

[quote]Originally posted by MicrosoftOsXp:
<strong>If it were up to me I would buy:

1. Newtek - Lightwave
2. Maya
3. 3ds max
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Seems like a waste to buy such redundant property. Besides, 3D MAX would require a complete rewrite. I think Apple has to think long and hard about buying an advanced 3D product because they are so unbelievably hard to develop and support. They make FCP look like pong.