"Harman is also known for its audio equipment, under names like Harman Kardon and Bang & Olufsen."
Actually, they have something like 20 audio brands including ones like AKG, Soundcraft and JBL. I don't know what their automotive business is, but I bet their audio side makes up the majority of their yearly sales (and the automobile side is probably also mostly audio as well).
Actually, no. The vast majority of Harman's sales comes directly from the OE automotive business. A chunk comes from Pro audio (think stadiums, arenas, touring bands, movie theaters, recording studios and new building construction). The smallest part of the business is the consumer/home audio business.
Do you (or Gatorguy) have a breakdown for that?
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
"Harman is also known for its audio equipment, under names like Harman Kardon and Bang & Olufsen."
Actually, they have something like 20 audio brands including ones like AKG, Soundcraft and JBL. I don't know what their automotive business is, but I bet their audio side makes up the majority of their yearly sales (and the automobile side is probably also mostly audio as well).
Actually, no. The vast majority of Harman's sales comes directly from the OE automotive business. A chunk comes from Pro audio (think stadiums, arenas, touring bands, movie theaters, recording studios and new building construction). The smallest part of the business is the consumer/home audio business.
Do you (or Gatorguy) have a breakdown for that?
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
From the press release, which is all I'm familiar with. "Approximately 65% of HARMAN’s $7 billion of reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 are automotive-related, and its order backlog for this market at June 30, 2016 was approximately $24 billion."
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Tim Cook's lack of vision is ridiculously bad. The guy needs to be replaced ASAP before the Apple brand loses its shine.
The guy is a nuts and bolts guy.
Seems like the only vision Cook has is to make political statements and use Apple to push his social agenda. MAKES ME SICK.
The guy is literally costing Apple shareholders HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in value. With a competent CEO Apple would be worth more than a TRILLION DOLLARS.
I'm glad Apple doesn't focus on your bottomline...If Apple makes you so sick then sell your stock and stop bitching! Go elsewhere....instead you choose not to.
Under the US governance system, shareholders have the option of voice or exit. @sog35 is merely exercising his right to the former. You may not like it, but it's very much in the US tradition.
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Tim Cook's lack of vision is ridiculously bad. The guy needs to be replaced ASAP before the Apple brand loses its shine.
The guy is a nuts and bolts guy.
Seems like the only vision Cook has is to make political statements and use Apple to push his social agenda. MAKES ME SICK.
The guy is literally costing Apple shareholders HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in value. With a competent CEO Apple would be worth more than a TRILLION DOLLARS.
I'm glad Apple doesn't focus on your bottomline...If Apple makes you so sick then sell your stock and stop bitching! Go elsewhere....instead you choose not to.
Under the US governance system, shareholders have the option of voice or exit. @sog35 is merely exercising his right to the former. You may not like it, but it's very much in the US tradition.
"Harman is also known for its audio equipment, under names like Harman Kardon and Bang & Olufsen."
Actually, they have something like 20 audio brands including ones like AKG, Soundcraft and JBL. I don't know what their automotive business is, but I bet their audio side makes up the majority of their yearly sales (and the automobile side is probably also mostly audio as well).
Actually, no. The vast majority of Harman's sales comes directly from the OE automotive business. A chunk comes from Pro audio (think stadiums, arenas, touring bands, movie theaters, recording studios and new building construction). The smallest part of the business is the consumer/home audio business.
Do you (or Gatorguy) have a breakdown for that?
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
"Harman is also known for its audio equipment, under names like Harman Kardon and Bang & Olufsen."
Actually, they have something like 20 audio brands including ones like AKG, Soundcraft and JBL. I don't know what their automotive business is, but I bet their audio side makes up the majority of their yearly sales (and the automobile side is probably also mostly audio as well).
Actually, no. The vast majority of Harman's sales comes directly from the OE automotive business. A chunk comes from Pro audio (think stadiums, arenas, touring bands, movie theaters, recording studios and new building construction). The smallest part of the business is the consumer/home audio business.
Do you (or Gatorguy) have a breakdown for that?
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
From the press release, which is all I'm familiar with. "Approximately 65% of HARMAN’s $7 billion of reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 are automotive-related, and its order backlog for this market at June 30, 2016 was approximately $24 billion."
They changed their segment reporting in 2015, so it's a bit tougher to get the exact breakdown of all their automotive business. But you're right about their $24B in order backlog (for a $7B company, that's hugely impressive):
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
IIRC, Harman's total sales are about double that of the entire North American home audio market. Home audio's a comparatively small market, but it has a lot of different players in it. The OEM automotive audio market is very concentrated into a small handful of companies. But, that market also is evolving very quickly with connected and integrated systems. Samsung is ramping up their development side, and they have considerable manufacturing capacity (except for their higher end and professional products, I believe that Harman outsources much of its manufacturing).
Harman accounts for about half of the automotive audio market (including OEM systems), and the majority of the pro audio market (recording studios, concert audio, movie theaters, etc.). This is what Samsung is buying into. They don't currently have a presence in either market. I can see the big picture with the automotive market, since that's dominated by a small group of companies. But, I wonder how Samsung will handle Harman's range of audio brands. Under the Harman umbrella, they operate fairly autonomously and each focus on specific market niches. Samsung has seemingly taken more of a scattershot approach, where they try to appeal to all market segments at once.
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Tim Cook's lack of vision is ridiculously bad. The guy needs to be replaced ASAP before the Apple brand loses its shine.
The guy is a nuts and bolts guy.
Seems like the only vision Cook has is to make political statements and use Apple to push his social agenda. MAKES ME SICK.
The guy is literally costing Apple shareholders HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in value. With a competent CEO Apple would be worth more than a TRILLION DOLLARS.
Still blaming Cook for your poor investment skills I see.
My wish is Apple buys LYV (Live Nation)...they will own the content for concerts across the globe and turn this into a virtual reality add on to apple music...they also own ticketmaster
see, this is the type of stuff I wish Tim Cook would do.
Apple literally has $200 billion in cash and does nothing with it. Even if only 1 out of 10 acquisitions is a success that would be a win.
Instead Cook does nothing and sits on his hands.
in 2012 the stock was at $100 4 years latter and we are at $105. Pathetic. And if you minus the growth in the cash balance the value of Apple is actually DOWN since 2012.
I agree that I don't like Apple's inability to productively employ that $200 billion, but I think manic, unfocused acquisitions would be worse than sitting on the cash.
With so much cash, Apple has the ability to do some big things that nobody else can do. I think it would be much better to do a big thing that nobody else can do than to do 500 little things that many other people can do.
I know a lot of people hate this idea, but if Apple were to do a big acquisition, I'd vote Tesla. Elon Musk has ideas for very big things that actually could employ $200 billion in cash. Tesla's problem is that it's undercapitalized. Apple's problem is a lack of a big idea for inventing it's capital. They're the perfect match.
I never said Apple had to be a maniac in acquiring companies. I am saying they at least should take some risks and put that $ to use.
Apple could have bought Tesla for half the price just 2 years ago. They missed on so many opportunites its sick.
Instead they used the cash to do $200 billion in buybacks which has only benefited Wall street day traders.
IMO, Tim Cook is way over his head as CEO. Guy is great with supply chain, but he isn't a visionary nor does he know how to grow through acquisition
If he used 200billion to get shares off the market and away from rank amateurs like Wall Street and you, then its money well spent.
How have long-term Apple shareholders benefited from the buy back?
The stock is worth LESS (taking into consideration cash) than it was in 2012 before the buyback.
The only people who benefited from the buyback was Wall street traders who bought and sold the stock
Ah there you go. You're assuming that this is being done to benefit you. You're not the shareholder he's looking for.
Cook's biggest mistake to date was handing out a dividend. That brought in the speculators, the day traders and the amateurs. The buyback isn't about raising the share price; it's about correcting that mistake. It's about getting rid of you.
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Tim Cook's lack of vision is ridiculously bad. The guy needs to be replaced ASAP before the Apple brand loses its shine.
The guy is a nuts and bolts guy.
Seems like the only vision Cook has is to make political statements and use Apple to push his social agenda. MAKES ME SICK.
The guy is literally costing Apple shareholders HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in value. With a competent CEO Apple would be worth more than a TRILLION DOLLARS.
I'm glad Apple doesn't focus on your bottomline...If Apple makes you so sick then sell your stock and stop bitching! Go elsewhere....instead you choose not to.
Why the hell would I sell a stock that I personally feel is undervalued by at least 50-75%?
Why the hell would I sell a stock that is literally a new competent CEO away from going up $400 billion in value?
Hell no. I'm waiting it out. No way Tim Cook is going to cause me to sell my stock. I will out last him
Could you wait it out with less foaming at the mouth?
Harman accounts for about half of the automotive audio market (including OEM systems), and the majority of the pro audio market (recording studios, concert audio, movie theaters, etc.). This is what Samsung is buying into. They don't currently have a presence in either market. I can see the big picture with the automotive market, since that's dominated by a small group of companies. But, I wonder how Samsung will handle Harman's range of audio brands. Under the Harman umbrella, they operate fairly autonomously and each focus on specific market niches. Samsung has seemingly taken more of a scattershot approach, where they try to appeal to all market segments at once.
Samsung has had a major presence in the Pro AV market for quite some time, by virtue of their commercial displays and CCTV systems. They often have one of the biggest booths at InfoComm. So while they have been focussed on the "V" of AV, they now are able to cover the "A" through an established market channel.
PS: A good part of AV is device control and distribution of signal. This is where some of the other Harman brands like AMX and SVSI come in.
Wish Apple would have purchased this instead of Beats.
Why? Do they have a streaming service too? No? Okay, how about expertise in popular music and a group of people who can strike exclusive deals. No?
Right.
As much as you wish otherwise, Beats was a good buy.
Apple gave us iTunes. You're telling me they couldn't deliver a streaming music service without spending $3 billion on Beats? Apple is also making a play for the connected car. Outside of CarPlay they have very little foothold in the connected car space. That's why I think it would have been a smarter buy.
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Jim Cramer had been pushing for Apple to buy Harmon for a long time. Samsung might be buying for the sake of buying but they're taking good companies/products off the market that would probably be better put to use in someone else's hands.
My wish is Apple buys LYV (Live Nation)...they will own the content for concerts across the globe and turn this into a virtual reality add on to apple music...they also own ticketmaster
see, this is the type of stuff I wish Tim Cook would do.
Apple literally has $200 billion in cash and does nothing with it. Even if only 1 out of 10 acquisitions is a success that would be a win.
Instead Cook does nothing and sits on his hands.
in 2012 the stock was at $100 4 years latter and we are at $105. Pathetic. And if you minus the growth in the cash balance the value of Apple is actually DOWN since 2012.
I agree that I don't like Apple's inability to productively employ that $200 billion, but I think manic, unfocused acquisitions would be worse than sitting on the cash.
With so much cash, Apple has the ability to do some big things that nobody else can do. I think it would be much better to do a big thing that nobody else can do than to do 500 little things that many other people can do.
I know a lot of people hate this idea, but if Apple were to do a big acquisition, I'd vote Tesla. Elon Musk has ideas for very big things that actually could employ $200 billion in cash. Tesla's problem is that it's undercapitalized. Apple's problem is a lack of a big idea for inventing it's capital. They're the perfect match.
I never said Apple had to be a maniac in acquiring companies. I am saying they at least should take some risks and put that $ to use.
Apple could have bought Tesla for half the price just 2 years ago. They missed on so many opportunites its sick.
Instead they used the cash to do $200 billion in buybacks which has only benefited Wall street day traders.
IMO, Tim Cook is way over his head as CEO. Guy is great with supply chain, but he isn't a visionary nor does he know how to grow through acquisition
If he used 200billion to get shares off the market and away from rank amateurs like Wall Street and you, then its money well spent.
How have long-term Apple shareholders benefited from the buy back?
The stock is worth LESS (taking into consideration cash) than it was in 2012 before the buyback.
The only people who benefited from the buyback was Wall street traders who bought and sold the stock
We don't always agree but I agree with you on stock buy backs. I can't see what good they've done. Now AI's favorite analyst Ming Kuo is out with a research note saying iPhone 7 sales demand isn't there and he expects sales to drop off 5-15% over the next two months. Funny how AI usually can't post his stuff fast enough, often times with a "breaking" tag but haven't posted this yet.
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Tim Cook's lack of vision is ridiculously bad. The guy needs to be replaced ASAP before the Apple brand loses its shine.
The guy is a nuts and bolts guy.
Seems like the only vision Cook has is to make political statements and use Apple to push his social agenda. MAKES ME SICK.
The guy is literally costing Apple shareholders HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in value. With a competent CEO Apple would be worth more than a TRILLION DOLLARS.
Still blaming Cook for your poor investment skills I see.
So, you're saying that Apple is a "poor investment"?
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Jim Cramer had been pushing for Apple to buy Harmon for a long time. Samsung might be buying for the sake of buying but they're taking good companies/products off the market that would probably be better put to use in someone else's hands.
Apple could easily outbid Samsung. It's not like the deal is closed yet.
"Harman is also known for its audio equipment, under names like Harman Kardon and Bang & Olufsen."
Actually, they have something like 20 audio brands including ones like AKG, Soundcraft and JBL. I don't know what their automotive business is, but I bet their audio side makes up the majority of their yearly sales (and the automobile side is probably also mostly audio as well).
Actually, no. The vast majority of Harman's sales comes directly from the OE automotive business. A chunk comes from Pro audio (think stadiums, arenas, touring bands, movie theaters, recording studios and new building construction). The smallest part of the business is the consumer/home audio business.
Do you (or Gatorguy) have a breakdown for that?
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
From the press release, which is all I'm familiar with. "Approximately 65% of HARMAN’s $7 billion of reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 are automotive-related, and its order backlog for this market at June 30, 2016 was approximately $24 billion."
Still doesn't change my comment about the fact that Harmon is still a small time player in automotive (as compared to other suppliers) and they only provide products in a very narrow range (infotainment and telematics).
The article implied this purchase by Samsung puts them on par with the big players. It doesn't.
Apple lost a huge opportunity. Harman has class, design chops, and is already in the dashboard of every high end auto manufacturer. At this point, we have to reluctantly accept the fact that this plays into the narrative that the company lacks a clear strategy/vision. At least, none that is evident.
And it's painful to watch the stock getting pounded. Yes, I know that tech is taking a hit, but Apple is getting massacred.
Jim Cramer had been pushing for Apple to buy Harmon for a long time. Samsung might be buying for the sake of buying but they're taking good companies/products off the market that would probably be better put to use in someone else's hands.
Apple could easily outbid Samsung. It's not like the deal is closed yet.
I wouldn't mind since I like the brand and they seem to be compatible with Apple since they care about technology and quality.
But Apple has this thing about not spending so much money and 8 billion is a lot more than they've ever spent on an acquisition.
But at the same time if Apple is working on their own car solutions/car this could be like purchasing Nokia in 2006.
Look at iTunes, it was purchased as Soundjam, a tiny player in 2000.
Comments
Do you (or Gatorguy) have a breakdown for that?
As someone who works in automotive, I know that a lot of head units (radios/stereos) in vehicles are made by Harmon. It could very well be that these sales outpace all their other audio sales given the large number of vehicle sales every year.
However, I have never seen anything outside of head units or telematics in vehicles made by Harmon. If you look at other OE suppliers (Valeo, Bosch, Siemens, Continental - yes the tire company) you see instrument clusters, climate controls, airbag computers, stereo/nav systems, heads up displays, suspension control, braking systems, autonomous driving components - the list is endless.
So to say that this purchase "will automatically catapult it into the highest levels of automotive tech suppliers, " is a bit of stretch, since even lesser known companies (like Valeo, for example) have 2x the yearly sales of Harmon while heavyweights like Bosch have 10x while developing systems for the entire vehicle, not just infotainment.
"Approximately 65% of HARMAN’s $7 billion of reported sales during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016 are automotive-related, and its order backlog for this market at June 30, 2016 was approximately $24 billion."
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/04/wolverton-apple-out-of-touch-with-both-fans-and-average-consumers/
The automotive segment accounts for -- at a minimum (but it's surely more) -- 45% of Harmon's sales and 25% of operating profits (data for FY2016). http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/HAR/3222552027x0xS1564590-16-24079/800459/filing.pdf
Harman accounts for about half of the automotive audio market (including OEM systems), and the majority of the pro audio market (recording studios, concert audio, movie theaters, etc.). This is what Samsung is buying into. They don't currently have a presence in either market. I can see the big picture with the automotive market, since that's dominated by a small group of companies. But, I wonder how Samsung will handle Harman's range of audio brands. Under the Harman umbrella, they operate fairly autonomously and each focus on specific market niches. Samsung has seemingly taken more of a scattershot approach, where they try to appeal to all market segments at once.
Ah there you go. You're assuming that this is being done to benefit you. You're not the shareholder he's looking for.
Cook's biggest mistake to date was handing out a dividend. That brought in the speculators, the day traders and the amateurs. The buyback isn't about raising the share price; it's about correcting that mistake. It's about getting rid of you.
Could you wait it out with less foaming at the mouth?
Samsung has had a major presence in the Pro AV market for quite some time, by virtue of their commercial displays and CCTV systems. They often have one of the biggest booths at InfoComm. So while they have been focussed on the "V" of AV, they now are able to cover the "A" through an established market channel.
PS: A good part of AV is device control and distribution of signal. This is where some of the other Harman brands like AMX and SVSI come in.
hmm, couldn't get the gif to work but picture a car exploding
like usual Sammy doesn't want to be left out and wants to play too!
and yes this would have been a great buy for Apple
Still doesn't change my comment about the fact that Harmon is still a small time player in automotive (as compared to other suppliers) and they only provide products in a very narrow range (infotainment and telematics).
The article implied this purchase by Samsung puts them on par with the big players. It doesn't.
But Apple has this thing about not spending so much money and 8 billion is a lot more than they've ever spent on an acquisition.
But at the same time if Apple is working on their own car solutions/car this could be like purchasing Nokia in 2006.
Look at iTunes, it was purchased as Soundjam, a tiny player in 2000.